Laws.
Africa Legislation Commons
Uganda
Illiterates Protection Act
Legislation as at 2000-12-31.
FRBR URI: /akn/ug/act/ord/1918/9/eng@2000-12-31
PDF created on 2021-07-15 at 16:19.
There may have been updates since this file was created.
Check for updates
About this collection
The legislation in this collection has been reproduced as it was originally printed in the Government Gazette, with
improved formatting and with minor typographical errors corrected. All amendments have been applied directly to
the text and annotated. A scan of the original gazette of each piece of legislation (including amendments) is
available for reference.
This is a free download from the Laws.Africa Legislation Commons, a collection of African legislation that is digitised
by Laws.Africa and made available for free.
www.laws.africa
info@laws.africa
There is no copyright on the legislative content of this document.
This PDF copy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0).
Share widely and freely.
Table of Contents Uganda
Table of Contents
Illiterates Protection Act 3
Chapter 78 3
1. Interpretation 3
2. Verification of signature of illiterates 3
3. Verification of documents written for illiterates 3
4. Offence and penalty 3
5. Saving as to certain documents 3
Schedule (Section 5) 4
Exempted documents 4
By Laws.Africa and contributors. Licensed under CC-BY. Share widely and freely. 2
Illiterates Protection Act Uganda
Uganda
Illiterates Protection Act
Chapter 78
Commenced on 30 September 1918
[Up to date as at 30 September 2020]
[Note: The version of the Act as at 31 December 2000 was revised and consolidated by the Law Reform Commission of
Uganda. All subsequent amendments have been researched and applied by Laws.Africa for ULII.]
An Act for the protection of illiterate persons.
1. Interpretation
In this Act—
(a) “document” means any print or writing capable of being used as evidence of any fact or thing as against
the person by, for or at the request, or on behalf or in the name of whom the same purports to be written
or signed in any way;
(b) “illiterate” means, in relation to any document, a person who is unable to read and understand the script
or language in which the document is written or printed.
2. Verification of signature of illiterates
No person shall write the name of an illiterate by way of signature to any document unless such illiterate shall
have first appended his or her mark to it; and any person who so writes the name of the illiterate shall also write
on the document his or her own true and full name and address as witness, and his or her so doing shall imply a
statement that he or she wrote the name of the illiterate by way of signature after the illiterate had appended his
or her mark, and that he or she was instructed so to write by the illiterate and that prior to the illiterate
appending his or her mark, the document was read over and explained to the illiterate.
3. Verification of documents written for illiterates
Any person who shall write any document for or at the request, on behalf or in the name of any illiterate shall
also write on the document his or her own true and full name as the writer of the document and his or her true
and full address, and his or her so doing shall imply a statement that he or she was instructed to write the
document by the person for whom it purports to have been written and that it fully and correctly represents his
or her instructions and was read over and explained to him or her.
4. Offence and penalty
If the writer of or witness to the signature on any document fails to write on it his or her true and full name and
address as provided in section 2 or 3, or if he or she has done so and the statement which under this Act is
implied by the writing is untrue in any particular, then and in every such case the person commits an offence and
is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding three hundred shillings, or in default of payment to imprisonment
for a period not exceeding three months, but without prejudice to any criminal or civil liability which he or she
may have incurred in the circumstances by reason of fraud, forgery, misrepresentation or otherwise.
5. Saving as to certain documents
Nothing in this Act shall apply to documents of the classes specified in the Schedule to this Act. The Schedule
may be varied from time to time by the Minister by statutory instrument.
By Laws.Africa and contributors. Licensed under CC-BY. Share widely and freely. 3
Illiterates Protection Act Uganda
Schedule (Section 5)
Exempted documents
1. Receipts for taxes.
2. Receipts for money paid by a Government officer on behalf of the Treasury.
By Laws.Africa and contributors. Licensed under CC-BY. Share widely and freely. 4
