Four inmates occupy space meant for one prisoner in Ugandan jails, according to a report by the Uganda Prisons Services (UPS). UPS states that the prisons occupancy rate is 353 percent. This places Uganda among the top five countries with overcrowded prisons.
According to a statement by the spokesperson of the UPS, Senior Commissioner of Prisons Frank Baine, there were 79,653 inmates in the 269 prisons units by December 8, 2025.
‘As of December 8, 2025, 42,458 were convicts, 36,485 were on remand, 710 were debtors totalling to 79,653 inmates plus 287 kids kept in 269 prisons units grouped in 19 regions,’ Mr Baine said. The UPS facilities have a holding capacity of 22,569 prisoners.
According to UPS reports, 62 percent of the prisoners are youth between the ages of 18 and 30 while 36 percent are between ages 31 and 59.
Only 2 percent are 60 years and above. Both the UPS and Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) agree that the situation in the prisons is a humanitarian crisis. In August 2025, the Deputy Commissioner General of Prisons, Mr Samuel Akena, told Members of Parliament that the prison population is rising by eight percent annually, yet the facilities extension is nearly static.
Mr Akena said the rising prison population has put pressure on both staff and inmates. With the increase in arrests and remands due to the campaigns for the 2026 General Election that has been marred by violence, the number of inmates’ population is expected to increase farther. Several of the former inmates described life in the prisons as horrible.
Mr Norman Tumuhimbise, the executive director of Digitalk Online TV, who has been on remand in prisons several times, decried the congestion in the jails, describing it as hell on earth.
‘On Friday (on his first day in jail), I slept very poorly. You are put in a congested cubical. The place is so congested that there is an RP (prefect), whose work is to arrange the inmates so that they can fit in the ward,’ Mr Tumuhimbise said.
He said inmates are arranged in rows and face to the side, but when the first one’s torso is left, the immediate neighbour must put his or hers on the opposite side.
‘All inmates sleep on the side of their body. There is no space to turn your body at night. If you are to change the sleeping position, all inmates in the row have to change,’ Mr Tumuhimbise said.
He said the inmates are packed so tightly that their lives are in danger.
A former editor of Red Pepper, Mr Richard Kintu, who was once remanded to Luzira prison over media-related offences in 2017, said conditions at the jail are inhumane.
‘The first day is when you experience real congestion in the prison. Regardless of the social status, all the new inmates spend the night in that section. The situation is so bad there. We were packed in a room where the body heat emitted makes everyone sweat,’ Mr Kintu said, adding that no space is spared including the passageway.
‘If you have digestive problems and you have to visit the toilet at night, you have to raise your hand for the RP to remove inmates from the passageway to enable you to wade through,’ he said.
On the second day, he said, the situation improves for inmates with a higher social class. The prisons warders give out blankets to new inmates. Mr Kintu said every day, inmates are given a cup of porridge in the morning, and one other meal at lunch time.
‘You are given beans first at midday then two blocks of posho are served later, at around 3pm. Those posho blocks and beans are your lunch and supper,’ he said.
Dire situation
The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) 2024 report showed that pre-trial detention is among the major causes of overcrowding in prisons.
‘The major causes of the increase in prison population are excessive pre-trial detention and incarceration for minor and petty offences. Furthermore, the number of prisons or their capacity has not increased proportionately to population growth,’ report stated.
The UPS report that data between January 2025 and August 2025 showed that occupancy rate in 24 of the 269 prisons was over 600 percent. For instance, Kicheche prison, whose capacity is eight prisoners, had 80 inmates in August, which is a 1,000 percent occupancy rate.
Kapeeka Prison had 990 percent occupancy rate while Kyegegwa Prisons had a 927 percent occupancy rate. Another 148 prisons had occupancy rates between 301 percent and 600 percent.
Seventy-two prisons had an occupancy rate between 200 percent and 300 percent. Only 25 prisons had less than 200 percent occupancy rate by August 2025. The UHRC said overcrowding in prisons leads to the violation of prisoners’ human rights.
‘These conditions violate the right to humane treatment under both the UDHR [Universal Declaration of Human Rights] and the ICCPR [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights], leading to a dehumanising environment,’ the 2024 UHRC report read in part.
When the UHRC team visited Kitalya Prison, they were informed that due to overcrowding, inmates are forced to take sleeping pills to be able to get sleep.
Activists believe that issuance of bail of accused, and granting of parole and pardon to some convicts would reduce congestion. Between 2020 and 2025, President Museveni pardoned 1,798 inmates.