Kibo Media, an events and promotions firm, is locked in a legal battle with Nile Breweries over unpaid marketing and events services worth more than Shs 12.76 billion.
The standoff began with a demand letter dated February 14, 2025, from Kibo Media, demanding payment from Nile Breweries for outstanding bills arising from marketing and events services it said it had provided between 2021 and 2024.
Kibo Media claimed Nile Breweries ignored the demand.
On March 12, 2025, Kibo Media started arbitration proceedings before the Centre for Arbitration and Dispute Resolution (CADER) and proposed three possible arbitrators.
Nile Breweries first rejected the immediate move to arbitration and argued that the contracts required the parties to first attempt mediation before arbitration.
Both sides then jointly appointed Albert Mukasa as mediator, paid for the mediation process, and held a mediation session on May 6, 2025.
During mediation, the mediator, Mukasa, directed both parties to reconcile their accounts within 14 days, but that exercise never happened.
On June 24, 2025, Nile Breweries informed Mukasa that it had withdrawn from mediation and instead filed a case in the Commercial Court.
In its lawsuit, Nile Breweries sued Kibo Media, the company’s Managing Director Bobkins Kibirige, and two former Nile Breweries employees, Amou Jervas Majok Matim Majok and Majok Darwin Jervase Majok.
Nile Breweries accused them of unjust enrichment, inducing breach of employment contracts, breach of statutory duty, negligence, deceit, conspiracy, and causing financial loss through fraud and unlawful means.
The beer firm sought Shs 8.9 billionIt sought in special damages together with other remedies.
Kibo Media denied the allegations and filed a defence together with a counterclaim seeking Shs 12.7 billion, saying the money represented unpaid invoices for marketing and events services supplied to Nile Breweries under 64 invoices.
Kibo Media’s managing director, Bobkins Kibirige, told the court that his company had rendered marketing and events services to Nile Breweries over several years but had not been paid.
He said they had initiated arbitration as per the contracts and that the dispute should not proceed in court because the parties had agreed to arbitration.
Kibirige also maintained that Kibo Media had already complied with the contractual requirement for mediation by participating in the CADER process before Nile Breweries abandoned it and rushed to court.
However, Nile Breweries’ legal officer, Faith Mirembe, told the court that Kibo Media had engaged in fraudulent dealings with some of their staff, which could not be settled through arbitration.
The beer company also argued that Kibo Media had lost its right to insist on arbitration after filing a defence and counterclaim in court instead of immediately objecting to the court’s jurisdiction.
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After hearing both sides, Justice Thomas Ocaya rejected Nile Breweries’ argument that Kibo Media ought not to have filed a defence if it preferred arbitration.
He said filing a defence and counterclaim does not automatically amount to giving up the right to arbitrate.
Justice Ocaya also rejected Nile Breweries’ argument that fraud-related claims against Kibo Media automatically belong in court.
“There is no statute and no rule of public policy in Uganda that takes such claims, where they arise between commercial parties out of a private contractual relationship, outside the domain of arbitration,” he said.
He said the real dispute between Kibo Media and the beer company centred on payments for marketing and events services, not fraud.
Justice Ocaya said that disputes over whether invoices were properly raised or payments were wrongly obtained were disputes connected to the contracts and should first be determined through arbitration where the contracts required it.
He criticised Nile Breweries for abandoning mediation after invoking it.
“Once that condition was discharged either by an unsuccessful mediation or by the unilateral withdrawal of one party, the parties were contractually bound to proceed to arbitration,” he said.
Justice Ocaya ordered that Nile Breweries’ contractual claims against Kibo Media arising from agreements be referred to arbitration.
He also referred Kibo Media’s counterclaim for Shs 12.76 billion to arbitration.
However, Justice Ocaya said the claims arising under the agreement without an arbitration clause and the personal claims against Bobkins Kibirige and the two former employees will remain before the Commercial Court after the arbitration process is completed.
