Gashumba denies assaulting dancer in boyfriend row, says she’s outgrown Ugandan social scene

Sheila Gashumba has denied claims that she assaulted a woman over her boyfriend, Alex Bidandi, dismissing the reports as fabricated.

Social media reports emerged last week that Gashumba confronted a woman after receiving a video that showed her dancing seductively with Bidandi at a bar.

The reports alleged that Gashumba drove to the venue, assaulted the woman and later paid her money to keep quiet.

Speaking during a conversation with blogger Peng Peng, Gashumba rejected the account and said she was not even in Uganda when the incident was alleged to have happened.

“That is not true. I have just come from the airport. I was not in the country,” she said.

Gashumba said a fan had sent her the reports the previous Sunday, but she dismissed them as another example of rumours created around her private life.

“I laughed it off and thought, ‘where do people get these things from?’ Who wakes up and thinks of things like this?” she said.

She also defended Bidandi, saying his private lifestyle often leaves room for speculation.

“My boyfriend is a private person and he does not post a lot. People, what they do not understand or have full access to, they have to create stuff,” Gashumba said.

She stated that she would not her boyfriend, a respected businessman, in such a situation 

“This is someone that is out there doing business with people during the day. Why would I put him in such a situation?” she said.

Gashumba also challenged the claim that she had paid the alleged victim after the confrontation.

“Besides, how small is this girl that I can beat them up and then bribe them? Why wouldn’t she go to the authorities? Who wouldn't want to put Sheila in jail?” she asked.

She then turned her frustration towards Uganda’s celebrity culture, saying she believes she has become too established to remain at the centre of every social media rumour.

“I think Uganda needs to produce some new female public figures so you can give some of us a break, because we have outgrown this,” she said.

“The country has failed to produce people who you can talk about all the time like me. There should be new girls on the scene.”

Gashumba has spent years in Uganda’s entertainment and social media space, where her relationships and lifestyle have often attracted public attention.