Bars keep us awake all night, Kololo residents tell court

Closed. Latin Events Limited trading as Big Mikes on Plot, 19 Acacia Avenue in Kampala. Photo BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI.

What you need to know:

  • Issue. The residents state that the bar operators have continuously erected big size screens with music videos and floodlights reflecting in their property which emit noise beyond the maximum permissible levels, with permission of their landlords. Ephraim Kasozi writes.

Residents of the upscale area of Kololo in Kampala Central Division are up in arms against the bars and their landlords over noise pollution.
The complainants among them owners, residents, occupiers of real property and dwelling houses on John Babiiha Avenue (Acacia Avenue), Acacia Road, Windsor Crescent and Someo Road in Kololo are against operation of bars in their locality.
It is alleged that the business people started five years ago as bars and night clubs that have played host to music concerts, loud public address systems, late night parties, engaged in and promoted music rehearsals for different musicians which feature electronically amplified guitars, organs, drums, flood lights, human voices, as well as excessive boisterous yelling, whistling, clapping and foot stomping noises.
The residents state that the bar operators have continuously erected big size screens with music videos and floodlights reflecting in their property which emit noise beyond the maximum permissible noise levels, with permission of their landlords.
“The defendants (bars) have continuously allowed the use and consumption of tobacco and other narcotic substances which circulate in the air and interrupt the quiet enjoyment of the plaintiffs’ properties as well as affecting their health and that of their family members,” reads the complaint before court.
A group of five residents describing themselves as proprietors of various properties in Kololo, have sued seven business entities (bars) plying their trade in their immediate neighborhood and their landlords.
They include Casablance Pub Night Club and Restaurant, H2O Bar, Restaurant and Lounge, Big Mike’s, Bubbles O’Leary’s, Atmosphere Bar and Lounge as well as Wave Lounge.
The landlords are Munubhai, Toshak Patel, Ms Winnie Byanyima and Eleazar Mugyenyi Kasimbazi.
Also sued is Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) for allegedly failing to execute their mandate of ensuring compliance with the laws.
Through their lawyers of Signum Advocates, the complainants are seeking a declaration that the business operations in Kololo violate their rights to a clean and health environment by emitting noise beyond the minimum permissible noise levels.
They are seeking for a permanent injunction restraining the accused parties and their servants from hosting music concerts, heavy metal music groups which rehearsals featured amplified guitars, organs, drums and human voices with excessive energetic yelling, clapping and foot stomping, late-night parties and raves in Kololo.
They also want a court pronouncement that the acts of seven bars to host music concerts, playing loud music, late night parties and raves that emit noise beyond the maximum permissible noise levels amounts to a breach of their Constitutional duty to create and protect a clean and healthy environment.
“A declaration that the 13th and 14th defendants (KCCA and Nema)’s omission to regulate the noise emission beyond the maximum permissible noise levels from the first to seventh defendants’ business premises amounts to a breach of their constitutional duty to create and protect a clean healthy environment,” reads the complaint seeking an order to abate the nuisance.

Involved. Residents in Kololo have sued various business entities including Casablance Pub Night Club and Restaurant


They are seeking want orders requiring payment of general damages for inconvenience and mental anguish suffered due to breach of their right to enjoy quiet possession of their properties as a result of the malicious and profit oriented actions by the bars.
They are also claiming for general damages as a result of KCCA and Nema’s failure to regulate the noise pollution in Kololo, an order compelling KCCA to re-designate the user and zoning of the land where the bars are situated to their original residential status as well as punitive damages against the accused to deter them from similar highhanded and unconstitutional status.
However, the accused parties have filed separate defences denying any wrong doing. Through their respective lawyers, they argue that the complainants would be put to task to proof their case.
Meanwhile court before Justice Henrietta Wolayo has set February 26 to rule on a preliminary objection against the case.
Mr Jonny Barenzi, one of the lawyers representing the accused parties, argued that the case was wrongly filed before the High Court which does not have the jurisdiction as per the laws. He said that the regulations only require such complaints to be filed in the magistrate’s courts.
But Mr Patson Arinaitwe who represents the complainants asked the court to consider the reliefs sought and the damages to dismiss the preliminary objection.

Bars’ defence against noise pollution charges

Casablanca Pub, Night Club and Restaurant Limited, Mehari Abrahale Gebremichaeli, Sasay Bekure Worldemichael, Latin Events Limited trading as Big Mikes, Hill 16 Productions Limited trading as Bubble and O’Leary and Wave Lounge Limited-Uganda, through Barenzi and Company Advocates, deny any wrongdoing.
In a joint defence, the parties argue that allegations against them are a prolix, premature, frivolous, founded on illegality, an abuse of the court process, misconceived in law and disclose no cause of action against them and it should be dismissed with costs.
They state the complainants are not entitled to the reliefs sought as they are misconceived, conjured and prematurely brought before court.
They admit carrying out businesses at their respective principal places in Kololo, an upscale Kampala suburb, but contend that their business locations are not adjacent to and or in the immediate neighborhood of the complainants’ residences.

Hangout. Bubbles O’learys pub on Acacia Avenue , in Kampala is among the bars accused of noise pollution.


They aver that they have never been issued with a noise control zone notice by the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) as required by law designating the complainants’ purported residential area as a Noise Control Zone for the purpose of controlling the emission of noise in that area.
The bar operators claim to have discharged their obligation of meeting the requirements prior to the grant of licences for them to establish their businesses, and that the said licences issued by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), the local planning authority, were duly honoured.
“That the defendants’ premises were duly inspected, assessed and evaluated as fit for business as establishments of entertainment within the parameters of the laws governing the said businesses,” reads part of the defence.
They contend that they enjoy a fundamental right to carry on trade and business in Uganda and that the suburb of Kololo has never been a restricted area for such trade and businesses and thus the complainants’ quest in the case amounts to negating their fundamental economic right to carry on business and trade as guaranteed to them by law.
“It is contended for the defendants that playing of music, the singing of songs and display of television screens within the precincts and confines of the compounds in their respective properties would not cause harm to the general public and the same is not prohibited by law and there cannot be a blanket ban on such activity as sought by the plaintiffs in their plaint. That there would be no scope to cause nuisance as the business of the defendants are carried out in a manner that is not inherently vicious to the health, safety, welfare, peace, order and morals of the general public,” reads the joint defence.
Through their lawyer, Geoffrey Nangumya and Company Advocates, the sixth defendant; Oly Foods Limited trading as Atmosphere Restaurant and Lounge at Windsor Cresent, states that it will raise a preliminary point of law to the effect that the plaintiff’s claim is misconceived, brought in bad faith, frivolous and discloses no cause of action against it.