Club Beaujolais located at Centenary Park on Jinja Road deploys guards at its entrance to monitor security of the revellers at the hang out. Photo by Edgar R. Batte   

It has been argued that Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania have thriving entertainment industries but Uganda is the showbiz regional hub where partying knows no particular day of the week or confined to weekends.
Gareth Okello, Club Rouge’s manager, says for example, on Wednesday, their nightclub is a full house courtesy of the heavy metal music. From midnight till late the crowd only keeps growing at some point you will hardly have enough space to turn around.
That was almost the same scenario at a Mombasa nightclub that was hit by terrorists a couple of days ago.
With big numbers comes the question of safety, especially if there was a stampede in the clubs.
The good thing is that club owners are increasingly becoming concerned with security of their clients as well as their business in the wake of a terrorist attack and have become more vigilant since the 2010 July bombings at Kyadondo Rugby Club and the Ethiopian Restaurant in Kabalagala.
However, security is not just on the exterior, or the entrance. A few will have to tighten on interior security detail, at least if any lesson, were picked from the October London nightclub incident that took 22-year old Nabila Nanfuka’s life in a “stampede” on St Peter’s Street in London.
The story was touching and an eye opener for local night club and bar owners. According to James Adetula, a witness, the stampede begun as people made for the exits, when they were told that their buses were leaving. “It was packed. A lot of people were trying to get in. Not everyone had a ticket but they were told they could buy them on the door, even though it was sold out. It was way over-capacity, I couldn’t breathe,” he explained. 
What about fire?
A few months ago there was a fire scare at Club Rouge, on Jinja Road as Gareth Okello, the club’s manager confirms, “We allowed in clients bring in additional equipment, which overloaded our electricity causing a fire. We were lucky to have detected and extinguished the fire successfully.”
This caused a mini-stampede just like was the case in the London incident in which Adetula recollects sights of so many people trying to get out at the same time as everyone panicked about missing the buses. He remembers hundreds of people rushing down the stairs and others pushing for space to run out of the club. “By the time we realised it was a dangerous situation, we couldn’t get back. People were fainting. At the bottom of the stairs, people were falling over,” he adds.
Andrew Kafoko is the club manager of Club Silk and explains that they are alert when it comes to security measures. The fire extinguishers are visible in the club’s four sections, Silk Royale, Oxygen, Ocean and Lounge.
“We also have an arrangement with Fire Masters and all the fire brigades and an internal trained team,” Kafuko reveals. He adds that the club can accommodate up to 1,000 revellers.
But even as he claims that they are strict on number, the business interest to make money off as many revellers as possible, dominates. On popular nights like ‘Campus Night’, Saturday Groove and unplugged sessions, the clubs takes more than its capacity can contain. “We try to be strict on numbers. Ocean, Lounge and Oxygen can each take 350 revellers and each has an exit route,” Kafoko insists.
But with these high numbers, a panicky crowd might find it hard exiting the club given the condensed natures of the club sections for instance the Lounge, which has a one-way glass door for an emergency exit. Recently the club management realised the space problem and has renovated Oxygen which hosts the unplugged sections. The air-condition system cannot effectively maintain clean and fresh air in the big, sweaty crowd.
Mondays are not dreary at Club T1, off Old Port Bell Road. In fact that’s when this club cashes in more.
“We will have the biggest crowd, of up 500 revellers which is our club capacity. We enjoy monopoly on Mondays because much of Kampala is ‘asleep’ and only a few bars open,” Apollo Natukunda, T1 Club’s manager, explains. Public holidays will attract a little more than 500 people.
A part of this crowd takes solace from the frequent load shedding patterns. “I just don’t want to be home in the dark with no TV. It stresses me so I come to club where I can meet friends and there are many people here,” Shantal Musiitwa, a reveller says.
Club T1 pays so much attention on security, and the only club with a stand by ambulance, sniffer dogs and a fire trucks. Inside, there are three emergency exit doors and a well-controlled air condition system. “We have always had the sniffer dogs courtesy of Pinnacle Security. The dogs can detect bombs, forearms and opium which are not allowed in club. We made our emergency exits wide enough. They are 4 by 6 and 3 by 6. We have three exits,” Natukunda adds.