The Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Winnie Nankya Jatikko on Wednesday granted bail to prominent human rights lawyer Sarah Bireete, after spending several weeks in detention following her arrest on charges related to unlawful disclosure of voters’ personal data.
The Grade One Magistrate Winnie Nankya released Bireete on a cash bail of Shs1 million, with non-cash sureties, and ordered her to surrender her passport to court as a condition of bail to stop her from traveling outside uganda.
Bireete, the executive director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG) who also serves as chairperson East and Horn of Africa election observers, was arrested on December 30, 2025, as uganda prepared to have general polling day on January 15 , and charged under Sections 35 (1) and (2) of the Data Protection and Privacy Act.
The government Prosecutors allege that between January and December 2025, political activists and others still at large unlawfully obtained or disclosed information from the National Voters Register without the consent of the Electoral Commission of Uganda the board that is responsible for the release of any information concerning voter’s register.
