Constitutional Court bars Bank of Uganda from indiscriminate freezing of customer bank accounts without a court order
5 Justices of Appeal/Constitutional Court Irene Mulyagonja, Egonda-Ntende, Elizabeth Musoke, Muzamiru Kibeedi and Cheborion Barishaki anonymously ruled that allowing BoU to indiscriminately freeze bank accounts while shielding it from being sued for doing so was unconstitutional and ordered the Attorney General to harmonise all laws to give only courts powers to freeze accounts.
The Constitutional Court has outlawed Section 118 and 124 of the Financial Institutions Act (2004) which previously gave the Bank of Uganda uncontrolled and unaccountable powers to freeze bank accounts held in Financial Institutions it supervises.
Section 124 further protected the central bank and its official from being sued for the same.
The Constitutional Court has also ordered that bank