Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act, Uganda

This page is general information, not legal advice.

Why it is called both 2019 and 2022

Parliament passed the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Bill in February 2019, so most people call it “the 2019 Act”. Reports differ on when the President signed it. The Uganda Gazette of 28 January 2022 lists “The Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act, 2022” as Act No. 2 among its Acts supplements. In this wiki we use the familiar name, but if you need the official citation, check the current Laws of Uganda.

What the Act is for

Before this law, traditional medicine had almost no formal recognition in health law. The Act aims to recognise and regulate traditional and complementary medicine, set standards for practice, and promote collaboration with conventional health services. A WHO review describes it as creating a multisectoral National Council of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practitioners to control, standardise, regulate and promote the practice, with representation in district health structures.

The council and registration

According to reporting on the Act, section 4 sets up the National Council of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practitioners. Its jobs include:

• registering practitioners and issuing licences;
• setting and monitoring standards of practice;
• supporting cooperation between healers and conventional health workers.

When the Bill was debated in 2019, reporters described plans for herbalists to submit their remedies to the Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Laboratory (NCRL), a government laboratory, for testing before licensing, and for a committee on ethics and intellectual property. Some herbalists objected, fearing their secret formulas could be taken without protection. We have not been able to read the final text in full, so we cannot confirm exactly how these provisions ended up in the Act.

Status in practice

A law on paper is not the same as a working system. In February 2023 the Daily Monitor reported that the Act had not been operationalised because of lack of funding. The president of the National Herbalists Association said that the lack of a regulatory framework was “fuelling masqueraders and charlatans in this sector.”

A 2025 academic review classed Uganda’s framework as “at implementation” stage. We did not find any public announcement that the national council is registering healers as of 11 October 2026. As far as we can tell, there is no national healer licence you can check yet. If this changes, we will update this page.

Why healers want regulation, and what worries them

Many healers support a proper system. In 2023 the Daily Monitor reported that the Ministry of Health estimates about 60% of Ugandans use herbal medicine, and that Mubende District alone had more than 600 traditional healers compared with 51 health centres. With numbers like these, a working register would help patients tell genuine healers from fraudsters.

Healers also have concerns. When the Bill was debated, some herbalists feared that sharing their formulas with government researchers could lead to their knowledge being taken. One association leader told Global Press Journal that the Bill did not protect their knowledge and innovation. The same report noted that Uganda’s Industrial Property Act of 2014 does not allow patents for traditional herbal medicines. Researchers in Zurich who study the Act ask similar questions: can complex healing knowledge, including its spiritual side, be fairly captured by formal licensing?

What already applies to healers

• Herbal products are regulated by the drug authority. Products should be notified or registered before sale in pharmacies and drug shops. See how to check herbal medicine.
• Criminal law still applies: fraud, threats, assault and the Witchcraft Act.
• Policy: Uganda’s 2005 Policy Framework for Partnership with Traditional and Complementary Medicine Practitioners already called for registration, standards and integration with the health system.

What this means for you

Until the council is working, people choosing a healer must rely on local reputation, membership of known associations, and common-sense checks. Use our safe healer checklist. On Juju.ug, listed healers must follow our safety policy. A Juju.ug listing is not a government licence.