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Though Statistics on rape and other sexual assaults are commonly available in advanced countries, there is no database on statistics on rape in Uganda. Rape is illegal in Uganda and carries long term prison jail terms however the police and the locals and later alone the Courts of law hardly follows up rape cases.

In the communities and villages, locals are reluctant to report such cases and the few strong women who have come out to speak about rape or how they have been raped are considered social outcasts and in some cases can’t even get married, so they women have also suffered in silence.
Talking about rape in Uganda, inconsistent definitions of rape, different rates of reporting, recording, prosecution and conviction for rape create controversial statistical disparities, and lead to accusations that many rape statistics are unreliable or misleading.
Some report compiled from government sources showed that more than 123,000 cases of rape or attempted rape occur annually but less than 100 make it to court and are hardly even followed. In some jurisdictions, male-female rape is the only form of rape counted in the statistics. The attitude of the police in many countries often discourages victims from reporting rape: Ugandan culture believes state that some women deserve rape because of their physical appearance and that the behaviors of women tempt men to rape.

In Eastern Uganda, rape is very rarely reported, due to the extreme social stigma cast on women who have been raped or the fear of being disowned by their families, or subjected to violence, including honor killings. Furthermore where adultery and/or premarital sex are illegal, victims of rape can face prosecution under these laws, if there is not sufficient evidence to prove a rape in the court. Even if they can prove their rape case, evidence during investigation may surface showing that they were not virgins at the time of the rape, which, if they are unmarried, opens the door for prosecution.

Some may or may not criminalize marital rape, and, in many villages which do criminalize it, prosecutions for it are exceptionally rare. Sexual activity in marriage is, in many parts of the Uganda, considered an absolute right of the husband that can be taken with or without the consent of his wife; the very act of a woman refusing to have sex with her husband may be considered unthinkable: women in Jinja said that a husband is justified to beat his wife if she refuses to have sex with him. Though de jure, a rape law may be applicable to any victim; de facto the enforcement of the law often excludes certain victims, such as prostitutes, women who were not virgins at the time of the rape, or other women with a 'bad reputation'.