Through his evidence affidavit, in the suit filed at Jinja High Court, lawyer Rapheal Norvic Sseruyange narrated to Court that he is still traumatised and receiving counselling after being psychologically tortured as a result of drinking contaminated Nile breweries beer.
He claims that in November 2023, while at his home feeling bored, he felt thirsty and in a need of taking a beer.
He made a phone call to his friends and they met at Kisansa life bar which was their usual hangout point for a drink.
He added that because the bar attendant was accustomed to him being a Nile breweries customer, when he signaled her to bring him two cold bottles of beer, she brought him his favourite drink and also brought for his friends.
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The bar attendant opened for him the first bottle but while he was enjoying his drink, one of the friends saw an unusual object in his bottle, he jokingly asked him to check what was in his bottle.
“I was shocked seeing a sweet Pepsi package in my bottle, everyone ran to the bar attendant asking her what she had put in my bottle. The shocked bar attendant insisted that she is not the one responsible because she opened the bottle in our presence,” Sseruyange stated
They checked another bottle which was not yet opened and it was also contaminated with the same object. He immediately started vomiting and his friends started claiming that he was poisoned.
He was rushed him to a nearby health facility to get treatment.
“Since then, I become a laughing stock because I vomited a lot and even developed a running stomach. When I recovered, my friends and my mother organized for me a party to celebrate my survival saying that I was going to die of alcohol and I was thus nicknamed as Kawonawo (survivor),” Sseruyanga stated.
He stated that he wrotes a complaint to Nile Breweries and when they failed to respond to his complaint, he instructed his lawyers to write to them a notice of intention to sue but they still declined to respond so he filed a suit against the said company.
The matter was allocated to Justice Lawrance Gidudu who advised the parties to settle their matter out of court on grounds that the saga was placing Nile Breweries in bad light.
Sseruyange claims that the judge recommended that he should be compensated with Shs3m and ten crakes of Nile Breweries.
However, when he engaged the company’s lawyers who were led by Robert Okalang, they told him that they were ready to only compensate him with Shs2m and beer which he protested.
When they returned before the judge, Sseruyange said that the judge advised him to accept the offer on grounds that his case lacks evidence.
Sseruyange was not happy with the judge’s statement and asked him to recuse himself from his case citing biasness after accu8ssing him of shielding Nile Breweries.
The judge declined to recuse himself from the matter stating that, “Consequently, I do not find valid reasons to recuse myself when what was pointed out were legal challenges that the plaintiff cannot address. The application for recusal is not merited. It is a tactic for judge-shopping by especially unrepresented litigants. The application for recusal is dismissed,” judge Gidudu stated
He denied making any demeaning statement when he compared Sseruyange to Male noting that if he was biased, he wound have dismissed his suit on technicality instead of advising him to seek mediation or amend his suit.
Even though Nile Breweries lawyers were insisting that the judge dismisses the entire suit on technicality for lack of evidence, the judge declined and forwarded the matter to the Magistrate Court for a full trial noting that it is not worth Shs100m.
This is not the first time when Nile Breweries is being dragged to Court for selling contaminated beer. In 2018, Philip Yoacel Uluga filed a suit at the Commercial Division of the High Court accusing Nile Breweries of selling to him a bottle of beer contaminated with condom particles.
