On August 4, 2023, Quality Shopping Village in Naalya signed a three-year tenancy agreement with Bata Shoe Company.
However, a year later, Quality changed the terms of the agreement by increasing rent and payment terms. We have been told that initially, Bata was supposed to pay $2,000 (Shs 7 million) per month for their space at the Naalya-based shopping village. They were supposed to pay quarterly (every three months). However, after a year, the rent was increased to $2500, something that Bata protested.
On April 15, 2025, Quality issued a termination notice and evicted Bata from the premises. Bata protested the decision and applied unilaterally to the International Centre for Arbitration and Mediation in Kampala (ICAMEK) for arbitration, since this was part of the agreement.
Quality argued that this was an arbitration issue and therefore kept away, but this did not stop ICAMEK from appointing Isaac Ssekabanja. In the end, Bata was adjudged to have been treated unfairly by Quality by ICAMEK.
Quality decided to contest the decision in the High Court, arguing that ICAMEK’s decision had been “one-sided,” breaching the agreement’s requirement for mutual consent on the arbitrator.
Bata argued that Quality had been notified by ICAMEK, but it did not turn up.
After listening to both parties, Justice Patience Rubagumya quashed ICAMEK’s ruling, arguing that the arbitrator was appointed without the Quality’s agreement, rendering the entire process invalid from the start.
“The ruling from the arbitration cannot be enforced,” Rubagumya said.
The ruling means that the eviction of Bata by Quality Shopping Village stands.
