By BigEyeUg Team
Ugandan singer Iryn Namubiru has shared a deeply emotional and personal reflection on one of the most painful periods of her life — her 2012 detention in Japan and the tragic loss of her father shortly after her return.
In a raw series of late-night social media posts, the artist revealed that the trauma from that time still haunts her twelve years later.
“It is 03:03 am and I have not closed my eye for even a second. I feel I need someone to tell me I am not mad if I say what’s on my mind!” she wrote, expressing her sleepless distress.
Namubiru was detained in Japan in 2012 for alleged drug-related issues — a situation that made headlines across Uganda. Although she was eventually released and cleared, the ordeal left lasting scars.
Just two weeks after returning home from that ordeal, her father passed away — a moment that compounded her emotional breakdown.
“Only two weeks after my three-week detention in Japan, my father died. He was not there to welcome me back like everybody else did and I did not see nor have him on phone till his death,” she recounted.
Namubiru painfully recalled how her father had spent the day before his death trying to reach her, and how she ended up handling funeral arrangements mostly alone. Despite having family around, she says she felt abandoned at a time she desperately needed emotional support.
“The day he died, I spent the day alone in my house even if there were other people living with me. My mother in particular chose to walk away, only to return at 4:00pm.”
She then made a lonely journey to Bweyogerere in Nakawuka/Ssokolo/Kassanje, where her father’s vigil was taking place, surrounded by unfamiliar faces from her paternal family. With nowhere to sleep, she spent that night outside in her car.
“I was alone. Just like I am an only child, I was there by myself. I spent that night alone at my father’s vigil… fighting mosquitoes in my car.”
On the day of the burial, her mother and children arrived just over an hour before the ceremony.
More than a decade later, the singer admits she is still overwhelmed by the memories she never fully processed.
“Tonight I am in my house alone and particularly emotional. I am crying all the tears I never cried that day and it’s been 12 years already. I have so many questions!”
Namubiru ended her reflection with a quote that translates roughly to: “People who walk around talking to themselves are not always mad, even if we tend to think so.”