By Victor Turinawe.
The School of Law at Uganda Christian University (UCU) has continued to strengthen its reputation for training future legal professionals after winning the East African Annual Privacy Moot Court Competition for the second consecutive year.
UCU emerged overall champions in the fifth edition of the regional competition, which was hosted at the university’s Mukono campus under the theme “Protecting Personal Data in Digital Financial Services and FinTech Ecosystems in East Africa.”
In the final round, UCU competed as the applicants against the University of Dar es Salaam from Tanzania, with Deborah Namiwanda Mulungi serving as lead counsel alongside Vanessa Evelyne Nalukwago.
The UCU team secured victory by a narrow margin of 0.6 points over the University of Dar es Salaam, whose team was represented by lead counsel Rosemary Muchondi and Sadam Hussein.
The 2026 competition attracted applications from 48 law schools across Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. Following the Memorial National rounds, 16 universities advanced, while only four qualified for the regional finals.
The four regional finalists were UCU from Uganda, Kabarak University from Kenya, the Independent University of Kigali from Rwanda and the University of Dar es Salaam from Tanzania.
Although UCU emerged overall champions, Muchondi of the University of Dar es Salaam was named the Best Memorial Oralist after scoring 83 per cent.
UCU received a cash prize of US$1,500, while the University of Dar es Salaam received US$500 as runners-up.
In addition to the prize money, UCU’s representatives earned a fully funded trip to the Privacy Symposium Africa in Accra, Ghana. They were also offered direct recruitment opportunities with the legal chamber of the Ministry of Information, Communication and National Guidance following a directive by Minister Justine Kasule Lumumba.
Speaking to the UCU Standard website during a post-competition press conference, Mulungi said the announcement of the results was marked by uncertainty before the team realised it had won.
“There was a lot of uncertainty at the moment when they were announcing the names. For a moment, my team and I were asking ourselves, ‘Could it be us? Could it be us?’ When they finally announced the results, we were like, ‘Wow!’” Mulungi said.
Nalukwago described the competition as an opportunity to acquire new knowledge and develop her understanding of data privacy.
“Honestly, this journey began way back in May. All these months have been rigorous, involving training, briefing and assessments. Sometimes you have to do things that you are not necessarily used to doing. Through this experience, I have learnt a lot about data privacy. Honestly, I had never paid much attention to privacy before,” she said.
Addressing participants and guests as the Guest of Honour at Nkoyoyo Hall, UCU Mukono Campus, Minister Lumumba said the growing use of digital financial services requires professionals who can balance technological innovation with the protection of individual rights.
“The challenge before us is how to achieve innovation in financial technology while ensuring that the rights of individuals are protected,” Lumumba said.
“For example, we often see situations where organisations collect or use people’s information without obtaining proper consent. A school may perform well and use photographs of students to attract more customers without necessarily obtaining consent from parents or the students themselves,” she explained.
Lumumba urged lawyers, policymakers, regulators and technology professionals to understand the wider implications of emerging technologies and data protection.
“These are issues that lawyers, policymakers, regulators and technology professionals must understand. Therefore, do not limit yourselves to the specific issues being discussed today. Think about the wider digital ecosystem and how different technologies interact with people’s rights,” she said.
Presiding over the competition, High Court Judge Justice Duncan Gaswaga and Court of Appeal Justice Geoffrey Wilfred Mupere Kiryabwire urged the mooters to take preparation, punctuality and teamwork seriously.
Justice Kiryabwire also highlighted the importance of specialisation and teamwork in modern legal practice.
“In other countries like South Africa, you find many company advocates standing together in the same court chambers, handling various aspects of a case before judges, with each law firm handling the aspect of its expertise,” he said.
The competition provided law students from East Africa with an opportunity to sharpen their advocacy skills while engaging with emerging legal questions surrounding data protection, digital financial services, fintech and technology.
