UPDF Regulations

Contents hide

1.1 Uganda Peoples Defense Force Regulations

Uganda Peoples Defense Force Regulations

(1)The Minister may, after consultation with the Defence Forces Council by statutory instrument, make such regulations as may be necessary or convenient for ensuring the discipline and good administration of the Defence Forces and generally for the better carrying out of the provisions of this Act.

(2)Without prejudice to the general effect of subsection (1), the Minister may make regulations under that subsection in respect of—

(a) such matters as are required under this Act to be prescribed or are authorised or required under this Act to be made by regulations;

(b)the disposal of any property for the Defence Forces and the application of the proceeds, if any, of the disposal;

(c)conditions of service in addition to those contained in this Act;

(d)the liability of officers and militants;

(e)the collection, administration and distribution of the service estates of officers and militants and the disposal of the personal effects of absented officers and militants;

(f)the prohibition or control of dangerous flying;

(g)the vaccination and inoculation of officers and militants and the provision of other immunisation procedures for the officers and militants;

(h)the control of the handling of dangerous substances by officers and militants;

(i)the conditions subject to which certain punishments may be imposed;

(j)the custody of officers and militants arrested or detained and the duties of the persons in whose charge those officers and militants have been placed;

(k)the date of the commencement of terms of detention under this Act and the periods to be left out or taken into account in the computation of those terms;

(l)the fees to be charged for any service performed by any person for the purposes of this Act;

(m)the arrest and custody of deserters and persons absent without leave and any matter connected with or incidental to such arrest and custody;

(n)the procedure to be observed in proceedings before military courts and the payment of remuneration to witnesses;

(o)the execution of officers and militants sentenced to death by Field Courts Martial; and

(p)the procedure to be observed in the conduct of meetings under this Act.

(3)Regulations made under this Act shall be laid before Parliament within sixty days of their coming into force.

253.Orders and instructions

(1)The Chief of Defence Forces may issue orders and instructions not inconsistent with this Act or regulations under it—

(a) in the discharge of his or her duties under this Act; or

(b) in explanation or implementation of regulations.

(2)A commanding officer shall issue standing orders which shall include orders that are peculiar to his or her station or unit.

(3)An officer in temporary command of a station or unit shall not issue standing orders, nor alter those already in force, without reference to the officer in permanent command or to superior authority.

(4)A commanding officer when he or she is away from his or her station or unit, shall not issue standing orders.

(5)A commanding officer shall issue unit orders as required for the promulgation of information and direction to all officers and militants under his or her command.

(6)The form of unit orders shall be as the Chief of Defence Forces may

prescribe.

(7)An officer or a militant shall normally be warned of all duties other than ordinary routine duties in unit orders.

(8)Unit orders shall be—

(a)posted in suitable places in the station or unit so that they may be available to officers and militants; and

(b)distributed as the Chief of Defence Forces may direct.

254.Power of Minister to amend Schedules

The Minister may with the approval of the Cabinet amend the Schedules to

this Act.

255.Continuance of existing forces

(1)The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces in existence immediately before the date of commencement of this Act shall, on and after that date, become and continue to be the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces established by clause (1) of article 208 of the Constitution.

(2)All units and other elements of the Defence Forces which are maintained immediately before the date of commencement of this Act shall, on that date, become units and other elements of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces and shall be embodied in the Regular Forces and be subject to the provisions of this Act.

256.Repeal of Cap 307 and saving

(1)The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces Act is repealed.

(2)Notwithstanding the repeal specified in subsection (1)—

(a) all things lawfully done under the repealed enactment which are of force and effect immediately before the commencement of this Act, including any regulations, rules or orders made, decisions made by any body created or directions given under the repealed enactment, all regulations made under the repealed Armed Forces Act, 1964 saved by the repealed enactment which are of force and effect immediately before the commencement, and anything done under a military court warrant or under any such regulations, rules, orders or directions, shall, so far as consistent with this Act and anything done under it, continue of force and effect after the commencement , and such continuance shall have effect notwithstanding any change in the authorities empowered to do or effect any such thing; and any such regulations, rules, orders or directions shall continue in force until they expire according to their terms or are revoked by regulations or orders, directions and instructions made or given by a competent authority under this Act;

(b)so much of any written law or public document as refers, whether expressly or by implication, to, or to things done or deemed to be done or to be done under or for the purposes of, any provision of the repealed enactment shall, so far as the nature of the subject matter of that written law or public document permits, be construed as including, in relation to matters and times governed by a corresponding provision in or under this Act, a reference to, or, as the case may be, to things done or deemed to be done or to be done for the purposes of, the corresponding provision of this Act;

(c)every officer commissioned, and every militant enrolled or re-engaged under the repealed enactment, who is in the Army immediately before the commencement of this Act shall continue on and after such commencement to serve in the Defence Forces as if he or she had been re-engaged, as the case may be, under this Act;

(d)every officer and militant whose service is continued under paragraph (c) of this subsection shall have his or her service continued in the rank and appointment which he or she held immediately before the date of

commencement of this Act and, in the case of an officer, any commission issued under the repealed enactment or any enactment repealed by it shall be deemed to be a commission issued under this Act, and shall serve in the Defence Forces in accordance with this Act; but no such officer or militant shall be required to serve for a longer specified period than the residue of any specified period of service which he or she was liable to serve immediately before that date.

(e)all released officers or militants who are subject to reserve liability under the repealed enactment immediately before the date of commencement of this Act shall, on that date, become members of the Reserve Forces.

(f)any member of the Defence Forces who, immediately before the date of commencement of this Act, is liable, in accordance with the terms of his or her enrolment under the repealed enactment, to serve any term of reserve liability on the termination of his or her service with the Defence Forces shall be liable, on the termination of his or her service with a Regular Force, to serve a like term in the Reserve Forces.

(g)the service of every officer and militant whose service is continued under paragraph (c) of this subsection shall be deemed to be continuous with his or her former service under the repealed enactment and with any other former service with which, in accordance with the repealed enactment, any such latter service is to be aggregated or to be treated as continuous, and all such former continuous service shall be taken into account in computing the total service of any officer or militant for the purposes of any pension or gratuity payable to him or her.

(3)A military court shall have jurisdiction to try and punish an offence committed before the date of commencement of this Act, against any section of the repealed enactment as if the offence were an offence against this Act; and this Act shall apply in relation to any such first mentioned offence and to the finding and sentence of a military court, as if that offence were an offence against this Act.

(4)Where any person is tried by a military court for an offence against any section of the repealed enactment the person charged shall have the like defences as were available to him or her under the repealed enactment, and references to a service offence and a military court in section 216 shall include references to an offence against the repealed enactment and a military court under that repealed enactment respectively.

(5)Where any proceedings in respect of an offence against the repealed enactment have been commenced before the date of commencement of this Act, any step in the proceedings taken in accordance with the repealed enactment shall be deemed to have been validly taken for the purposes of the corresponding provision of this Act; and, if the trial of any person for such an offence has been commenced by a military court under the repealed enactment but not concluded before that date, the trial may be continued and concluded and findings and sentences made on the trial, as if that military court were a military court under this Act.

(6)Where after the date of commencement of this Act a person is alleged—

(a)to have committed an offence continuing over a period beginning before that date and ending on or after that date; or

(b) to have committed an offence between two dates falling within that period,

and the offence would be an offence against this Act if it had been in operation at all material times, he or she may be proceeded against as if this Act had so been in operation.

(7)References in any written law or public document to the former National Resistance Army (or the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces) or to the repealed enactment including any other references which, in accordance with the repealed enactment are to be read as references to the former National Resistance Army (or Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces) and the repealed enactment shall be read and construed in relation to any time, or to any period commencing, on or after the commencement of this Act as references to the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces and this Act respectively.

(8)In this section, “repealed enactment” means the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces Act formerly known as the National Resistance Army Statute, 1992.

257.Repeal of Cap. 295 and saving

(1)The Armed Forces Pensions Act is repealed.

(2)Subsections (2) and (7) of section 256 shall, as far as is applicable, apply to this section.

(3)For the avoidance of doubt, any benefit granted to or in respect of or earned by any person under the repealed Act shall be deemed to have been duly granted or earned under this Act.

UPDF Recruitment Procedure

UPDF Army Numbers

UPDF brass band