Campaigners have welcomed a court ruling to remove British colonial monuments from Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and to rename streets that honour “crooks and historical figureheads”.

In last week’s high court ruling, Justice Musa Ssekaana directed the city authorities to remove the names of British figures from streets, monuments and other landmarks.

They include Maj Gen Henry Edward Colville, an early commissioner of the Uganda protectorate, and Frederick Lugard, a prominent colonial official in Africa with a reputation for cruelty. New names will be found for roads and parks that reflect Uganda’s culture after the ruling, which was the culmination of a five-year campaign.

In 2020, more than 5,800 people signed a petition asking MPs to “decolonise and rename” the dozens of statues and streets honouring colonialists, and last year John Ssempebwa, a human rights activist, filed a lawsuit in Kampala, claiming that roads and parks named by the British during colonial times violated Ugandans’ rights to dignity and freedom from cruel treatment.

Apollo Makubuya, a lawyer and leading campaigner, said: “This ruling represents a significant step forward in the recognition of human dignity and the fight against colonial injustices.

“It is essential to break free from the legacy of colonial exploitation, oppression, and impunity by embracing names that truly reflect Uganda’s independence and cultural identity,” he said.

Kampala’s lord mayor, Erias Lukwago, said he was disappointed that the judge did not give a detailed judgment that addressed historical injustices and detailed those who opposed the British rulers, but added: “I think it’s long overdue for us to decolonise our streets.

“I believe we can have our history, we can keep records, but not celebrate some crooks and historical figureheads that brutalised Ugandans. They need not be celebrated,” he said.

However, Nicholas Opiyo, a human rights lawyer in Kampala, said the court order was a “futile … symbolic” exercise.

“Let’s leave them the way they are, let’s see them, let it be a constant reminder of our past,” he said. “The best way to recommit ourselves to a new path is to remember that path and not re-erase it.

“We cannot engage in a revisionist attempt to try to erase that history. To do so only on the names of streets would be selective. Our history is what it is. We must leave it, we must see it [and] we must remind ourselves of it if we are to move on from it,” he said.

“I think the court’s judgment and process that led to it is a revisionist approach; that it’s engaged in a futile exercise or symbolic exercise to revise our history, which is inextricably linked to the British colonial role in our country.”