Uganda has spent 26 years refusing to carry out executions while continuing to sentence people to death, leaving dozens of prisoners trapped between a punishment the state will not enforce and a freedom it will not grant.

Development Diaries reports that Christopher Onyum was sentenced to death by hanging in May 2026 after being convicted of murdering four toddlers at a nursery school in Kampala.

His sentence placed him among 93 inmates currently on Uganda’s death row, all of whom retain the right to appeal through the country’s courts before any death warrant can be signed by President Yoweri Museveni.

But the complication is that Museveni has not signed a death warrant since 1999. As a result, the 92 inmates who entered death row before Okello have spent years, and in some cases decades, waiting for a decision that never arrives.

When officials are asked about this situation, the explanation is usually that the long pause allows for more careful reviews and reduces the risk of judicial mistakes. What remains unexplained, however, is why the government continues to maintain a punishment it no longer appears willing to enforce and has not formally abolished.

What death row means in practice

The people held in the condemned section of Luzira Maximum Security Prison know that they have been sentenced to death, but what they do not know is whether that sentence will ever be carried out.

International human rights bodies have long argued that this uncertainty creates its own form of punishment, with the psychological burden of living under a death sentence for years without knowing whether execution will happen repeatedly described as cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.

Uganda ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1995, meaning those standards apply within the country’s human rights obligations.

The law provides no answer

Uganda’s constitution still permits the death penalty, and courts continue to impose it in cases they consider sufficiently serious, with the Supreme Court previously ruling against mandatory death sentences, requiring judges to consider the circumstances of individual cases before imposing capital punishment.

That ruling changed how death sentences are delivered, but it did not address what happens when the state stops carrying them out.

Ugandan law contains no provision requiring automatic commutation after a certain period on death row. There is no independent review mechanism for long-term death row cases and no statutory limit on how long condemned prisoners can remain in legal limbo.

Also, the Uganda Law Reform Commission has not produced a formal recommendation addressing the issue, while Parliament and the Ministry of Justice have not introduced legislation that resolves the contradiction between a functioning death penalty and a 26-year pause on executions.

What is failing

Parliament has not addressed the gap between retaining capital punishment and refusing to carry it out, while the executive has maintained what amounts to a silent moratorium without formally declaring one. Meanwhile, institutions responsible for legal reform and human rights oversight have not produced recommendations capable of forcing a policy response.

As a result, death sentences continue to be imposed while the government avoids deciding whether executions should resume, be abolished, or be replaced with alternative punishments.

Citizens’ rights

Uganda’s constitution prohibits cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and the same protection exists under international treaties to which the country is a party.

Human rights advocates argue that keeping prisoners under sentence of death for years without resolution falls within that prohibition because it subjects inmates to prolonged psychological distress without a clear legal outcome.

The women on death row

Among the 93 inmates on death row are two women, and women in prison often face additional challenges related to healthcare, family separation, and social stigma. For those on death row, those burdens are compounded by limited legal resources and prolonged uncertainty about their future.

Additionally, many death row inmates depend on overstretched state-appointed lawyers, and women with limited family support frequently face even greater difficulties navigating the appeals process.

What needs to happen

Ugandan human rights organisations and legal advocates should seek a constitutional court ruling on whether indefinite detention under sentence of death is compatible with Uganda’s constitution and international human rights commitments.

The Uganda Law Reform Commission should also publish a formal recommendation addressing the future of the 93 inmates currently on death row and clarify whether the country’s de facto moratorium should be converted into an official commutation programme.

Parliament and the Ministry of Justice must then decide whether Uganda intends to maintain, abolish, or actively enforce capital punishment.