What constitutes a lawful search?
The conduct of searches by security agents on suspected criminals has recently come under sharp public scrutiny, with criticism over how evidence may be planted to incriminate the accused. In the latest case, Achileo Kivumbi, a civilian security guard attached to National Unity Platform President Robert Kyagulanyi, is now charged by the Court Martial with illegal possession of defense stores. However, the NUP leadership and Kivumbi’s family accuse the security personnel of planting the military pips at his residence. Amid growing condemnation of security personnel for defective searches, which Jackson Onyango argues are flawed by lawyers for failing to incriminate the accused, the question arises: what constitutes a lawful search?
