A huge fight ensued over the weekend among bar owners in Kampala on a WhatsApp group called identified as Legit Bar Association (LEBRA).
LEBRA’s brings together all bar proprietors of popular hangouts in Kampala and the group is under the chairmanship of Patrick Morino.
The owners have since March last year been operating illegally and in touch with the police officials, who wet their beaks to avoid being raided and closed.
However, some bar owners allege that their colleagues alert different police officers to raid and arrest them and their customers.
On Friday, the bar owners went into haywire on their group as two owners Fred Kamau (Nomad Bar) and his colleague who runs Auto Spa in Bunga and Munyonyo respectively, ripped themselves apart.
The pair accused each other spying.
Mr Kamau alleged that many times he has been raided by police, its Auto Spa boss that is responsible.
Frustrated, he went to the WhatsApp group and clashed with his colleagues, unleashing all forms of venom.
He alleged that every time they are raided and arrested, there are different faces from Autospa and associates of Autospa whom he believes alert the police whenever his bar is full.
The members on the platform however, resorted to gloating and bragging about how their premises are enclosed and can’t be easily accessed by the police.
This simply sparked off more strife, frustration and anger.
For some bars, the owners had earlier acquired loans to revamp, refurbish and expand their businesses.
At around the same time, there was a COVID-19 outbreak which led to a total lockdown being enforced. Bars were closed and people became desperate and frustrated.
A case in study is Nexus Bar Najjera. The owner, Ivan Kakooza, acquired a loan of about shs.800million and invested it in events. He bought state of the art equipment from Dubai.
When covid came through, the banks were on his neck. He later succumbed to COVID-19 but the banks still went ahead and sold his house. Such scenarios cause bar owners to be desperate and frustrated and in turn take it out on each other.
The proprietors however, with the leadership of the chairman Patrick Morino, agreed on a certain day to share drinks and a meal in an attempt to put their grievances behind them and reconcile.
To reduce the gravity of the effects of the lockdown on the economy, President Museveni says he will allow the economy to fully open in January especially for night life given the contribution of bars and the likes to the economy.
The Permanent Secretary to the Treasury Ministry of Finance, Ramadhan Ngobi, advises that night life should be reopened because without it the economy will still be crippled and eventually crash.
Since the first lockdown last year, bars have been officially closed and President Yoweri Museveni in a state address 23rd September, 2021, said bars would remain closed until the prioritized 4.8m people are vaccinated. This, he said, is because drunkards pose a huge threat to themselves and as a result of a lack of sobriety, they are unable to observe the SOPs hence making the spread of COVID-19 easy.
