How to swear an affidavit in Uganda

1. At a glance

This guide is for anyone who needs to prepare and swear an affidavit for use in a Ugandan court or official matter — litigants, pupils, clerks and advocates advising a deponent. It covers who may administer the oath, the formal jurat requirements, and the drafting discipline that gives an affidavit real evidential weight. It does not cover the separate and more elaborate rules for affidavits used specifically in judicial review or election petitions, which carry additional procedural requirements beyond the general framework described here.

A reader-facing note on numbering: Uganda's 2023 Revised Edition (the current, 7th Edition, produced by the Uganda Law Reform Commission) renumbered chapters across the statute book. The Commissioners for Oaths (Advocates) Act was Cap. 5 in the 2000 edition and is Cap. 6 today; the Oaths Act was Cap. 19 and is now Cap. 21; the Statutory Declarations Act was Cap. 22 and is now Cap. 24. None of this means older material citing the earlier numbers is wrong — it is simply using the prior edition's numbering of the same Acts — but anything drafted or filed today should use the current numbers, which this note does throughout.

2. The statutory framework

Commissioners for Oaths (Advocates) Act, Cap. 6

This Act is the source of an advocate-commissioner's authority. By virtue of the commission, a commissioner for oaths may, in any part of Uganda, administer any oath or take any affidavit for the purpose of any court or matter in Uganda, and may also take a statutory declaration (s.4(2)). The Act's own disqualification rule is the one practitioners most often trip over: s.4(1) provides, in substance, that a commissioner for oaths shall not exercise any of these powers in any proceeding or matter in which they are the advocate for any of the parties, or clerk to such an advocate, or otherwise concerned in or interested in the matter. The Act also carries its own jurat clause — s.5, 'Particulars to be stated in jurat or attestation clause' — and s.7 with its Schedule supplies a prescribed jurat form ('Sworn/Declared before me, ___, this ___ day of ___, at ___. Commissioner for Oaths.'). The fee figures attached to that Schedule are 2000-consolidation shilling values and must not be quoted as current pricing.

Oaths Act, Cap. 21

The Oaths Act sits alongside the Commissioners Act and supplies the general framework for oaths and affidavits across Uganda: a notary public and any commissioner for oaths may administer any lawful oath and take any lawful affidavit. Its s.6, headed 'Place and date of oath', is verified verbatim: 'Every commissioner for oaths or notary public before whom any oath or affidavit is taken or made under this Act shall state truly in the jurat or attestation at what place and on what date the oath or affidavit is taken or made.' In practice, this and Commissioners Act s.5 impose the same substantive requirement from two directions, and a properly completed jurat by an advocate-commissioner satisfies both without any extra step.

Statutory Declarations Act, Cap. 24

A statutory declaration is a related but distinct instrument — a formal declaration of fact made where no oath is administered under a specific enactment but a sworn-equivalent statement is nonetheless required (for example, in some administrative and commercial contexts). A commissioner for oaths may take a statutory declaration under the cross-reference in the Commissioners Act (s.4(2)); the Statutory Declarations Act itself, commenced 23 June 2000, sets out the required form of declaration. Treat the chapter number given here (Cap. 24) with slightly less certainty than the other two — it was only singly sourced during verification, unlike the cleanly double-sourced renumbering of the Commissioners and Oaths Acts (see Grey areas below).

3. Who may take the affidavit — and when they must decline

In everyday Ugandan practice, the person who takes an affidavit is almost always an advocate holding a commission for oaths — a status distinct from, though often held alongside, an ordinary practising certificate. Notaries public also have the general power under the Oaths Act. The disqualification in s.4(1) of the Commissioners Act is not a technicality to be glossed over: it exists because a commissioner administering an oath is performing a quasi-judicial, independent verification function, and that independence collapses if the commissioner is also acting for a party or otherwise has a stake in the outcome.

The disqualification bites in three overlapping situations: where the commissioner is the advocate for any party to the proceeding, where the commissioner is clerk to such an advocate, and — the broadest limb — where the commissioner is 'concerned in the matter' or 'interested' in it. That last limb catches situations beyond the obvious case of the firm's own instructed advocate: a commissioner with a personal or financial stake in the outcome, or acting for a related entity in the same dispute, should also decline.

4. The jurat: what it must say and why it matters

The jurat is the short formal clause at the end of the affidavit recording that the deponent swore or affirmed the contents before the commissioner. Two independent statutory sources require it to state truly the place and date the affidavit was sworn — Oaths Act s.6 in general terms, and Commissioners Act s.5 specifically for advocate-commissioners. The Commissioners Act's Schedule supplies a prescribed short form ('Sworn/Declared before me, ___, this ___ day of ___, at ___. Commissioner for Oaths.') that in practice is adapted with the commissioner's name, designation and signature.

A jurat that is silent on where the affidavit was sworn, or dated inconsistently with the body of the affidavit, is more than a cosmetic defect — it goes to whether the oath was administered at all in the manner the statute requires, and can found an objection to the affidavit's admissibility or weight. Exhibits should also be identified in or immediately adjacent to the jurat, consistent with how they are marked and referred to in the body of the affidavit, so there is no ambiguity about which documents were before the deponent and the commissioner at the time of swearing.

5. Drafting the body: facts, belief, and exhibits

An affidavit is evidence, not argument, and its drafting discipline follows from that. Each paragraph should state one fact or a closely related group of facts, in the deponent's own words and within the deponent's own knowledge. Where a statement is not within the deponent's personal knowledge — for instance, something told to them by another person, or a fact inferred rather than directly observed — the affidavit should say so and give the source or the grounds for the belief, rather than asserting it as if personally witnessed.

Documents the affidavit relies on should be annexed as separately marked exhibits (commonly 'Annexure A', 'Annexure B', and so on), with each exhibit referred to by its mark at the point in the body where it becomes relevant. An affidavit that describes the contents of a document without attaching it is markedly weaker: the reader — whether registry staff, opposing counsel or the court — cannot verify the description against the primary document, and the deponent's characterisation of the document's contents becomes itself something that could be challenged.

6. Practical guidance and drafting tips

7. Common pitfalls

• Swearing before a commissioner who is the advocate for a party in the same matter, or is clerk to that advocate, or is otherwise interested — squarely disqualified under s.4(1) of the Commissioners for Oaths (Advocates) Act, Cap. 6.
• A jurat silent or vague on the place or date the affidavit was sworn — required independently by both Oaths Act s.6 and Commissioners Act s.5.
• Deposing to matters outside the deponent's own knowledge without disclosing the source or the grounds of belief.
• Referring in the body to exhibits that are not properly annexed, or annexing documents that are not referred to or marked consistently.
• Citing the pre-2023 chapter numbers as current — Cap. 5 (Commissioners Act), Cap. 19 (Oaths Act) and Cap. 22 (Statutory Declarations Act) are the 2000-edition numbers; use Cap. 6, Cap. 21 and Cap. 24 in anything drafted today.
• Quoting the Commissioners Act Schedule's fee figures as current pricing — they are 2000-consolidation values.

8. Grey areas and points to confirm

This note is built on a mix of verified-verbatim and corroborated material, and readers should note the following before treating every figure here as settled.

• The Statutory Declarations Act's current chapter number is given here as Cap. 24 (2023 Revised Edition), but this was only singly sourced during verification — one secondary reproduction showed 'Cap. 22' attached to an older edition, which is consistent with the general renumbering pattern but was not independently double-sourced the way the Commissioners Act (Cap. 5 → Cap. 6) and Oaths Act (Cap. 19 → Cap. 21) renumbering was. Treat Cap. 24 as the best current figure but confirm it against the corpus's own act_metadata.json (a Mac-side confirmation pass) before publishing or relying on it in a filed document.
• No current fee figures from the Commissioner for Oaths Rules or the Commissioners Act Schedule should be quoted — those figures are 2000-consolidation shilling values and are almost certainly stale.
• This note covers the general affidavit and commissioning framework only; affidavits used in judicial review applications or election petitions may carry additional procedural requirements under their own specific rules, which were not researched for this note.

9. Practitioner checklist

1. Confirm the commissioner for oaths who will take the affidavit has no advocate, clerk, or personal interest in the matter (s.4(1), Commissioners Act, Cap. 6).
2. Draft the affidavit in short numbered paragraphs, in the first person, stating facts within the deponent's own knowledge and the grounds for any stated belief.
3. Gather and mark every exhibit referred to in the body before attending on the commissioner.
4. Attend in person for the oath/affirmation — do not treat the commissioner's signature as a mere formality obtained after the fact.
5. Check the completed jurat for the true place, the true date, and the commissioner's name, designation and signature (Oaths Act, Cap. 21, s.6; Commissioners Act, Cap. 6, s.5).
6. Cite the current 2023-edition chapter numbers throughout (Cap. 6, Cap. 21, Cap. 24), not the pre-2023 numbers.
7. Retain the sworn original and obtain certified copies where the receiving registry requires them.

10. Sources and further verification

The Commissioners Act's current chapter number (Cap. 6, up from the 2000-edition Cap. 5) and the Oaths Act's current chapter number (Cap. 21, up from Cap. 19) were each independently double-sourced against dated ULII listings. Oaths Act s.6 and Commissioners Act s.4(1) were verified verbatim against the consolidated statute text. The Statutory Declarations Act's current chapter number (Cap. 24) was only singly sourced and should be confirmed against the corpus's act_metadata.json before publishing. Statutory text verified against the consolidated Laws of Uganda as at 31 December 2023. Sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org).

• Commissioners for Oaths (Advocates) Act, Cap. 6 (2023 Revised Edition) — ss.4(1), 4(2), 5, 7 and Schedule.
• Oaths Act, Cap. 21 (2023 Revised Edition) — s.6.
• Statutory Declarations Act, Cap. 24 (2023 Revised Edition) — chapter number to be confirmed against act_metadata.json.