The boat showed all signs of capsizing, but no one cared- Singer Iryn Namubiru

Singer Irene Namubiru has for the first time spoken out about on the incident in which over 30 people died as MV Templar that was destined for K-Palm Beach Resort in Mukono district capsized.

In a facebook post on Wednesday morning, Namubiru said before the fateful journey, there were a number of pointers to the bad condition the boat was in adding that this was confirmed by Kampala businessman Kiyimba Freeman who was among the organisers of the boat cruise.

“Then Freeman tried to explain to me “you know, we were scheduled to leave around midday, but then the boat got issues. Eh! I was like, “Oh my God, a few hiccups,”Namubiru said in a facebook recount of the events on the fateful day.

She however said she was comforted by the businessman that everything had been sorted and that they were ready to take the journey that would later turn out to be one of no return.

The singer narrated that as the boat sailed on the waters, it kept on let in water whereas it kept on tilting to one side but the occupants who were already drunk never cared .

“I realized the boat was always bending on that one side where I was, and the DJ kept on telling us “balance the boat, please balance the boat,” but people got on that boat drunk already.”

According to Namubiru, the boat kept on going on and off and mechanics had to repair it throughout the journey but occupants were too drunk to realize something was wrong.

“Actually the boat was under repair as we were sailing. Light was coming on and off. I didn’t realize that it was the engine failing, that we are in the middle of the lake not moving I got a little scared when a wave hit the boat and a speaker flew off into the water.”

Missing persons

Reports by survivors suggested there were more than 100 people on the fateful boat but only 33 bodies have been recovered whereas 27 people were rescued from the boat raising concern over the whereabouts of the other occupants of the boat.

Several conspiracy theories have pointed out to where these could have gone.

Fishermen near Mutima Palm Beach said two coasters and a taxi had picked some of the survivors whereas some police officers indicated that some of the survivors refused to be including in official records over their own selfish reasons.

However, the narration by the singer pointed out that a number of revelers jumped off the boat before it could capsize.

“There were other boats passing by that realized we had a problem (this I learnt after the incident) and they warned that we were about to capsize. They came closer and asked for those who wanted to leave the boat,”Namubiru said.

“Some 15 people left and jumped off the boat minutes before the boat could capsize and left us to us to die. I was not aware of all this, or I could have panicked and died.”

Police and the UPDF marines departments are still engaged in an operation to recover the missing bodies.