Uganda's penal code provides for 15 capital offences:

Uganda's penal code provides for 15 capital offences: nine separate offences grouped under the collective heading “treason” and offences against the state, rape, defilement, murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping. Death is a mandatory punishment for six of the treasonous offences and a discretionary sentence for the remaining felonies at the same go.
Article 22 of the Constitution says no person shall be deprived of life intentionally except in execution of a sentence passed by a court of competent jurisdiction in respect a criminal offence under the laws of Uganda and the conviction and sentence have been confirmed by the highest appellate court.
Under the 1995 Constitution, the President can exercise the prerogative of mercy in respect of any criminal offence on recommendation of an advisory committee.
In 2001, a Constitutional Review Commission was appointed by President Yoweri Museveni to review the Constitution. The Commission's brief is to gather opinions on the constitution from individuals, non-governmental groups and state institutions. Various groups have recommended the abolition of the death penalty.
The final report of the Commission was handed to the Ministry for Justice and Constitutional Affairs in December 2004, but was not immediately made public. It was to be discussed by the Cabinet, then passed on to Parliament.
On March 20, 2002 parliament in Uganda passed an anti-terrorism bill that gives the government sweeping powers to clamp down on organisations it thinks are carrying out terrorist activities, despite strong protests from opposition MPs. The bill imposes a mandatory death sentence for terrorists. Presiding judges will, however, have the discretion to impose lighter sentences on any person who aids, abets, finances or supports terrorism. Other clauses impose the death penalty on any person who publishes news or other materials that promote terrorism, causing strong opposition from journalists.
Execution notices are pinned to the prison gate once issued, then the condemned prisoner is informed and asked to make a will before being taken to the gallows on the scheduled day. Prison officers have described the procedure as a very traumatic experience even for the guards themselves, and in their recommendations to the Constitutional Review Commission in February 2003, requested that the death penalty be abolished and replaced with life imprisonment. Under laws in force in Uganda, a life sentence is 20 years and the inmates serve 16 years as a third of their term is usually subject to remission. The Prisons Department requested a change in the law so that life terms mean that convicts remain in prison until their death.
In July 2003, in response to appeals by human rights organisations for the abolition of the death penalty, President Yoweri Museveni said the death penalty must remain as a deterrent against indiscriminate killings. "I hear some people saying that the death sentence is inhuman. Very sorry. We shall shoot anybody who kills a human being," Museveni was reported as saying.
According to prison records, at least 377 people, including one woman, have been legally executed by hanging in Uganda since 1938. Under Idi Amin's 1971 to 1979 military dictatorship, 71 people were put to death following court decisions, although thousands more were killed extrajudicially during his rule.
Current President Yoweri Museveni's government hanged 28 people in one day in 1999, including a prominent politician in deposed president Milton Obote's regime, Hajji Musa Ssebirumbi.
Hands Off Cain recorded 2 executions following trials by traditional courts in 2001. In 2002, 3 soldiers executed: on March 25, 2002, in a highly controversial case, two soldiers were shot dead by firing squad for murdering an Irish Catholic priest and two other men (this was in the country's first public execution in a decade according to an army spokesman) and another soldier was executed for killing a civilian in December. In 2003, at least 7 people were put to death. In October 2004 there were at least 417 death row inmates in Uganda.