Chapter 16

NUISANCES AND OFFENCES AGAINST HEALTH AND CONVENIENCE.

160. Common nuisance.

(1) Any person who does an act not authorised by law or omits to discharge a legal duty and thereby causes any common injury, or danger or annoyance, or obstructs or causes inconvenience to the public in the exercise of common rights, commits the misdemeanour termed a common nuisance and is liable to imprisonment for one year.

(2) It is immaterial that the act or omission complained of is convenient to a larger number of the public than it inconveniences, but the fact that it facilitates the lawful exercise of their rights by a part of the public may show that it is not a nuisance to any of the public.

161. Gaming houses.

(1) Any person being the owner or occupier, or having the use of, any house, room or place, who shall open, keep or use it for the purpose of unlawful gaming being carried on in it, and any person who, being the owner or occupier of any house, room or place, shall knowingly and wilfully permit it to be opened, kept or used by any other person for that purpose, and any person having the care or management of or in any manner assisting in conducting the business of any house, room or place opened, kept or used for that purpose, is said to keep a common gaming house.

(2) In this section, “unlawful gaming” means any game the chances of which are not alike favourable to all the players, including the banker or other person or persons by whom the game is managed, or against whom the other players stake, play or bet.

(3) Any person who keeps a common gaming house commits a misdemeanour.

(4) Any person other than the persons mentioned in subsection (1) who is found in a common gaming house shall be deemed, unless the contrary is proved, to be there for the purpose of unlawful gaming, and commits a misdemeanour and is liable to a fine of one thousand shillings for the first offence, and for each subsequent offence to a fine of three thousand shillings or to imprisonment for three months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

162. Gaming machines.

Any person who imports or has in his or her possession any machine or other contrivance for the purpose of gaming commits a misdemeanour and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

163. Betting houses.

(1) Any house, room or place which is used for any of the following purposes—

(a) for the purpose of bets being made in it between persons resorting to the place and—

(i) the owner, occupier or keeper of the place, or any person using the place;

(ii) any person procured or employed by or acting for or on behalf of any such owner, occupier or keeper, or person using the place; or any person having the care or management, or in any manner conducting the business, of the place; or

(b) for the purpose of any money or other property being paid or received there by or on behalf of any such owner, occupier or keeper, or person using the place, as, or for the consideration—

(i) for an assurance, undertaking, promise or agreement, express or implied, to pay or give thereafter any money or other property on any event or contingency of or relating to any horse race or other race, fight, game, sport or exercise; or

(ii) for securing the paying or giving by some other person of any money or other property on any such event or contingency, is called a common betting house.

(2) Any person who, being the owner or occupier of any house, room or place, knowingly and wilfully permits it to be opened, kept or used as a common betting house by another person or who has the use or management, or assists in conducting the business, of a common betting house, commits a misdemeanour and is liable to imprisonment for one year.

(3) Nothing in this section shall render illegal the use of a totalisator on any occasion approved by the Inspector General of Police.

(4) For the purpose of subsection (3), “totalisator” means and includes the instrument, machine or contrivance commonly known as the totalisator, and any other instrument, machine or contrivance of a like nature, or any scheme for enabling any number of persons to make bets with one another on the like principles.

164. Keeper of premises defined.

Any person who appears, acts or behaves as master or mistress, or as the person having the care or management of any such house, room, set of rooms or place as is mentioned in sections 161 and 163 is to be taken to be the keeper thereof, whether he or she is or is not the real keeper.

165. Chain letters.

(1) Any person who sends or causes to be sent any chain letter or who sends or receives any money or money’s worth in connection with any chain letter commits a misdemeanour and is liable to imprisonment for six months or to a fine of four thousand shillings or to both such imprisonment and fine.

(2) For the purposes of this section, “chain letter” means any one of a series of similar documents addressed by one person to another person requesting the person to whom it is addressed—

(a) to send a similar letter to a specified number of other persons; and

(b) to remit to a person or to an address specified in the letter money or money’s worth.

166. Traffic in obscene publications.

(1) Any person who—

(a) for the purpose of or by way of trade or for the purpose of distribution or public exhibition, makes, produces or has in his or her possession any one or more obscene writings, drawings, prints, paintings, printed matter, pictures, posters, emblems, photographs, cinematograph films or any other obscene objects, or any other object tending to corrupt morals;

(b) for any of the purposes above-mentioned imports, conveys or exports, or causes to be imported, conveyed or exported, any such matters or things, or in any manner puts any of them in circulation;

(c) carries on or takes part in any business, whether public or private, concerned with any such matters or things, or deals in any such matters or things in any manner, or distributes any of them, or exhibits any of them publicly or makes a business of lending any of them;

(d) advertises or makes known by any means with a view to assisting the circulation of, or traffic in, any such matters or things, that a person is engaged in any of the acts referred to in this section, or advertises or makes known how, or from whom, any such matters or things can be procured either directly or indirectly; or

(e) publicly exhibits any indecent show or performance or any show or performance tending to corrupt morals, commits a misdemeanour and is liable to imprisonment for two years or to a fine of two thousand shillings.

(2) If, in respect of any of the offences specified in subsection (1)(a), (b), (c) or (d), any constituent element of the offence is committed in Uganda, that commission shall be sufficient to render the person accused of the offence triable for it in Uganda.

(3) A court, on convicting any person of an offence against this section, may order to be destroyed any matter or thing made, possessed or used for the purpose of that offence.

(4) A court may, on the application of the Director of Public Prosecutions, a state attorney, a public prosecutor or a superintendent of police, order the destruction of any obscene matter or thing to which this section relates, whether any person may or may not have been convicted under the provisions of this section in respect of such obscene matter or thing.

167. Idle and disorderly persons.

Any person who— (a) being a prostitute, behaves in a disorderly or indecent manner in any public place;

(b) wanders or places himself or herself in any public place to beg or gather alms, or causes or procures or encourages any child to do so;

(d) publicly conducts himself or herself in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace;

(e) without lawful excuse, publicly does any indecent act;

(f) in any public place solicits or loiters for immoral purposes;

(g) wanders about and endeavours by the exposure of wounds or deformation to obtain or gather alms, shall be deemed an idle and disorderly person, and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for three months or to a fine not exceeding three thousand shillings or to both such fine and imprisonment, but in the case of an offence contrary to paragraph (a), (e) or (f) that person is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

168. Rogues and vagabonds.

(1) Every— (a) person convicted of an offence under section 167 after having been previously convicted as an idle and disorderly person;

(b) person going about as a gatherer or collector of alms, or endeavouring to procure charitable contributions of any nature or kind, under any false or fraudulent pretence;

(c) suspected person or reputed thief who has no visible means of subsistence and cannot give a good account of himself or herself; and

(d) person found wandering in or upon or near any premises or in any road or highway or any place adjacent thereto or in any public place at such time and under such circumstances as to lead to the conclusion that such person is there for an illegal or disorderly purpose, shall be deemed to be a rogue and vagabond, and commits a misdemeanour and is liable for the first offence to imprisonment for six months, and for every subsequent offence to imprisonment for one year.

(2) Subsection (1)(b) shall not apply to collections made in any recognised building or place of religious worship.

169. Offences in relation to uniforms.

(1) Any person who, not being a person serving in the armed forces of Uganda or in a police force in Uganda, or in any naval, military, air or police force or constabulary of any other Commonwealth country, wears without the permission of the Minister the uniform of any of those forces or any dress having the appearance of bearing any of the regimental or other distinctive marks of such uniform, commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years; except that nothing in this section shall prevent any person from wearing any uniform or dress in the course of a stage play performed in any place in which stage plays may lawfully be publicly performed, or in the course of a music hall or circus performance, or in the course of any bona fide military representation.

(2) Any person who unlawfully wears the uniform of any of the forces aforesaid, or any dress having the appearance or bearing any of the regimental or other distinctive marks of any such uniform, in such a manner or in such circumstances as to be likely to bring contempt on that uniform, or employs any other person so to wear such uniform or dress, commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years.

(3) Any person who, not being in the service of the Government or having previously received the written permission of the Minister so to do, imports or sells or has in his or her possession for sale any such uniform as aforesaid, or the buttons or badges appropriate thereto, commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years.

(4) When any person is convicted of any offence under this section, the uniform, dress, button, badge or other thing in respect of which the offence has been committed shall be forfeited unless the Minister shall otherwise order.

170. Wearing of uniform declared to be for the exclusive use of persons performing services in the public interest.

(1) The Minister may, upon the application of any persons who perform or who are members of any organisation which performs any service which in his or her opinion is in the public interest, by statutory order declare that any uniform, badge, button or other distinctive mark used by such persons and described in the notice shall be for the exclusive use of such persons.

(2) Any person who, without the authority of the persons upon whose application an order under this section has been made, uses or wears any uniform, badge, button or other distinctive mark described in the order, or any uniform, badge, button or other distinctive mark so closely resembling the same as to lead to the belief that it is a uniform, badge, button or other distinctive mark so described, commits a misdemeanour; except that nothing in this section shall prevent any person from using or wearing any such uniform, badge, button or other distinctive mark in the course of a stage play performed in any public place in which stage plays may lawfully be publicly performed, or in the course of a music hall or circus performance, if the uniform, badge, button or other distinctive mark is not used or worn in such a manner or in such circumstances as to bring it into contempt.

(3) Any person who, without the authority of the persons upon whose application an order under this section has been made, imports or sells or has in his or her possession for sale any uniform, badge, button or other distinctive mark described in the order commits a misdemeanour.

(4) When any person is convicted of any offence under this section, the uniform, badge, button or other distinctive mark in respect of which the offence has been committed shall be forfeited unless the Minister shall otherwise order.

171. Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease.

Any person who unlawfully or negligently does any act which is and which he or she knows or has reason to believe to be likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

172. Adulteration of food or drink.

Any person who adulterates any article of food or drink so as to make the article noxious as food or drink, intending to sell that article as food or drink, or knowing it to be likely that it will be sold as food or drink, commits a misdemeanour.

173. Sale of noxious food or drink.

Any person who sells or offers or exposes for sale, as food or drink, any article which has been rendered or has become noxious or is in a state unfit for food or drink, knowing or having reason to believe that the same is noxious as food or drink, commits a misdemeanour.

174. Adulteration of drugs.

Any person who adulterates any drug or medical preparation in such a manner as to lessen the efficacy or change the operation of such drug or medical preparation, or to make it noxious, intending that it shall be sold or used for or knowing it to be likely that it will be sold or used for any medicinal purpose, as if it had not undergone such adulteration, commits a misdemeanour.

175. Sale of adulterated drugs.

Any person who, knowing any drug or medical preparation to have been adulterated in such a manner as to lessen its efficacy, to change its operation, or to render it noxious, sells the same or offers or exposes it for sale, or issues it from any dispensary for medicinal purposes as unadulterated, or causes it to be used for medicinal purposes by any person not knowing of the adulteration, commits a misdemeanour.

176. Fouling water.

Any person who voluntarily corrupts or fouls the water of any public spring or reservoir, so as to render it less fit for the purpose for which it is ordinarily used, commits a misdemeanour.

177. Fouling air.

Any person who voluntarily vitiates the atmosphere in any place so as to make it noxious to the health of persons in general dwelling or carrying on business in the neighbourhood or passing along a public way commits a misdemeanour.

178. Offensive trades.

Any person who, for the purposes of trade or otherwise, makes loud noises or offensive or unwholesome smells in such places and circumstances as to annoy any considerable number of persons in the exercise of their common rights, commits an offence and is liable to be punished, as for a common nuisance

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