Sharitah Haguma Director Lazio Italian Bar and Restaurant
There is a bitter feud between Premier Distilleries Limited and Sharitah Haguma following the eviction of her upscale Lazio Italian Bar and Restaurant from its premises near the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds.
Haguma says her business was forcefully removed by Premier Distilleries Limited over alleged unpaid rent arrears of three months, amounting to USD 2,700 per month—a claim she strongly denies. She insists she had operated at the premises for more than five years without defaulting on rent payments until Sunday, when she says she was illegally evicted.
Haguma says she found the premises vacant when she first took possession and has since invested more than USD 800,000 to develop the high-end bar in one of Kampala’s prime commercial and social areas. She claims all her property was removed without an inventory, leaving 30 staff members unemployed after the bar’s payroll and operational systems were vandalized.
A visit to the premises on Monday showed iron sheets being removed from the roof inside the closed building. Rubbish, including remnants of fittings and the bar’s signpost that had been mounted on the gate, had been dumped outside. Haguma said she reported the matter at Jinja Road Police Station but was frustrated by the process and has since lost property worth millions of shillings.
However, lawyer Ssekindi Gonzaga, representing Premier Distilleries Limited, said the landlord never had a tenancy agreement with Lazio Italian Bar but with a company known as Lazo Company Limited, which he says defaulted on rent payments. Gonzaga explained that Premier Distilleries wrote to Lazo Company Limited in January 2025, reminding it of its rental obligations.
He said the company requested time in February 2025 to organize its affairs but failed to pay by March, prompting the landlord to issue a three-month notice in line with the tenancy agreement. Gonzaga further explained that in August 2025, Lazio Italian Bar approached Premier Distilleries seeking to formalize a tenancy agreement. “We even drafted the tenancy agreement, but it was never executed because they did not pay the agreed amount,” he said.
By September, Gonzaga said the bar acknowledged outstanding rent arrears in writing but failed to clear them within five days. Premier Distilleries subsequently informed the bar that it was no longer interested in a tenancy arrangement and asked them to vacate the premises.
When the bar declined to leave, Gonzaga said the landlord sought assistance from the Police Land Protection Unit, following what he described as proper legal procedures. He said the request was cleared by the Regional Police Commander, Kampala Metropolitan East, and later approved by the District Security Committee.
Records show that Lazio Italian Bar later filed a complaint with the Inspector General of Police, which temporarily halted the re-entry. However, Gonzaga said subsequent engagements with the IGP’s legal department later cleared Premier Distilleries to reclaim the property.
According to Gonzaga, the official re-entry took place on January 2, 2026, at 8:30 a.m., in the presence of the area Local Council chairperson, the District Police Commander, and a police team. He described the exercise as cordial and said Haguma was given the opportunity to remove her belongings.
He said Haguma directed seven trucks to transport her property to her warehouse in Mutundwe and later returned to pick a generator. Gonzaga emphasized that the process followed all legal requirements and that no complaints were raised during the re-entry.
Documents from the Police Land Protection Unit, signed by Commandant James Kusemererwa, outline the police’s role in ensuring a peaceful and lawful re-entry, including verification of tenancy documents, coordination with local council leaders, and protection of the rights of all parties involved.
Correspondence from the Deputy Resident City Commissioner, Shaffic Ali Nsubuga, shows that a fact-finding meeting was held on November 11, 2025, in an attempt to reach an amicable resolution. Representatives from Premier Distilleries Limited, Lazio Italian Bar, the police, district internal security, and local government authorities were invited and asked to present all relevant documentation concerning the property. Records further indicate that Ortus Advocates, acting on behalf of Premier Distilleries, formally requested police deployment and outlined the legal basis for the re-entry at Plot 47, Upper Kololo.
Despite the landlord’s insistence that the process was lawful, Haguma maintains that the eviction has left her and her workers in distress. “We built this business from scratch. We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, and now everything has been taken without accountability. Thirty hardworking people are out of jobs,” she said.
Speaking to our reporter, Haguma’s lawyer, Stanley Okecho, described the landlord’s actions as regrettable. “You can’t stampede court. Such actions are very regrettable. The timing of the eviction is suspicious. Why evict during court vacation? We shall pursue the matter further with the relevant authorities,” Okecho said.
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