Ugandan music icon Iryn Namubiru has released her long-awaited memoir titled My Mother Knows: My Journey to Healing, which reveals the painful estrangement from her mother, Justine Nyanzi Namawejje, and strained family relations that have lasted over a decade. Launched at the prestigious Kampala Serena Hotel, the memoir shares raw and intimate details about her troubled relationship, marked by silence and emotional turmoil.
Namubiru recounts how a harrowing incident in 2013—when she was wrongly arrested in Japan on drug-related charges—worsened her family ties as she was met with indifference and hostility from her mother and extended family instead of support. Namubiru explains, “I had not held onto this information in a bid to protect my mother… but she was shielding all these people who hurt me anyway.”
The memoir’s turning point came when Namubiru overheard her mother spreading damaging false accusations against her, including neglecting her grandmother and exhuming grandparents’ remains for witchcraft, claims she strongly denies. This betrayal motivated her to finally share her truth openly, shedding a heavy emotional burden carried for years.