Sheilah Gashumba says she has never smoked or used drugs despite nightlife career

What the report says

Ugandan media personality and nightlife host Sheilah Gashumba has pushed back against a common assumption that people who work in clubs and entertainment venues automatically smoke or use drugs. In an interview on Kasuku Live, she said she has never been interested in either and has deliberately stayed away from intoxicants despite spending years around Kampala’s nightlife scene.

Sqoop Uganda reported that Gashumba said her decision is partly driven by concerns about hygiene, especially around shisha use. She described being put off by what she sees as poor cleanliness among some shisha attendants and by the practice of equipment being moved from one customer to another. Her comments were framed as a direct challenge to the stereotype that nightlife workers in Uganda necessarily take part in smoking or drug use.

The remarks matter because Gashumba is a visible figure in Uganda’s entertainment industry and nightlife culture, where smoking and shisha are often associated with club settings. Her message was that it is possible to participate in the scene professionally without adopting those habits. As a general point of context, debates about shisha and substance use have been common in many urban entertainment spaces, but the specific claims in this report are limited to Gashumba’s own comments and Sqoop Uganda’s coverage.