This study examined how Uganda’s Public Order Management Act, 2013 (POMA) and related law regulated public assemblies and demonstrations, and how courts and police applied the framework. Doctrinal analysis of Articles 29, 43 and 212 of the 1995 Constitution, the Act and selected decisions was combined with a quantitative analysis of 360 assembly notifications. Descriptive statistics, correlations, multiple linear regression and logistic regression were used. Assemblies organised by opposition parties had police restriction scores 22.36 points higher and 7.01 times the odds of being blocked or dispersed compared with other organisers. Election periods and Kampala venues also increased restriction, while longer notice reduced it. The regression explained 60.4 per cent of the variance in restriction. The study concluded that the framework, though facially a notification regime, operated in practice as a permission regime applied unevenly by organiser identity and political context. Recommendations included amendment of the Act, police training, independent oversight and clearer notification procedures.