{"id":9806,"date":"2026-01-28T15:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westernpearlreports.com\/?p=9806"},"modified":"2026-01-28T15:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:27:09","slug":"sarah-bireete-freed-on-bail-denounces-most-abused-constitutional-clause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernpearlreports.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/sarah-bireete-freed-on-bail-denounces-most-abused-constitutional-clause\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Bireete Freed on Bail, Denounces &#8220;Most Abused&#8221; Constitutional Clause"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>KAMPALA, UGANDA<\/strong> &#8211; The Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court has granted bail to prominent Ugandan activist Dr. Sarah Bireete, after she spent nearly a month in jail on charges of unlawfully obtaining voter data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Bireete was arrested on December 30, 2024, two weeks before Uganda\u2019s general elections, drawing sharp criticism from domestic and international human rights organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was charged over allegations related to accessing national voters\u2019 register data, accusations her supporters firmly deny as politically motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Sarah Bireete was granted bail by the court, presided over by Chief Magistrate Winnie Nankya Jatiko, and will appear for the next hearing, scheduled for February 27, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court granted Dr. Bireete bail of 1 million Ugandan shillings with two sureties and ordered her to surrender her passport, barring her from leaving the country without judicial permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking to the media upon her release, Sarah Bireete, Executive Director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance, expressed profound relief at regaining her freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She stated that Article 23 of the Constitution is the its most frequently abused provision and called for greater adherence to the rule of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I am relieved to be free. I condemn the abuse of constitutional rights as Article 23 is the most abused provision in the Constitution in Uganda. We must return to respecting the rule of law,&#8221; Bireete stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Groups including Human Rights Watch condemned the arrest as an arbitrary detention, part of a broader pattern of crackdowns on government critics in the lead-up to the polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The bail decision was celebrated by supporters of Dr. Bireete, the well-known civic leader and longtime advocate for democratic governance, including former opposition leader Winnie Kiiza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Bireete\u2019s detention and release highlight a persistent climate of intimidation against activists and opposition figures, a climate that many argue has tightened further in the post-election period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KAMPALA, UGANDA &#8211; The Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court has granted bail to prominent Ugandan activist Dr. Sarah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breakingnews","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sarah Bireete Freed on Bail, Denounces &quot;Most Abused&quot; 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