Those who knew John Birungi Babirukamu said he always kept to himself, sometimes rarely uttering a word the whole day to the people he worked with. He was also said to be very ambitious, juggling several projects at a go.
It is this hectic, stressful life that some say could have contributed to his death.
Babirukamu decided to take his life on May 31 by jumping off the fifth floor of an apartment building in Kamwokya, a suburb of Kampala.
He left a telling note: “I apologize for being an inconvenience in death as I was in life,” he wrote on his family WhatsApp group.
“I have given it my all and now I find myself with only emptiness. I do sincerely love you all, and hope you find it in your hearts to forgive me. Kiss my nieces and nephews for me. They are the last joy that I held onto.”
Still, why did this seasoned digital marketer take his life at a young age of 40?
A friend who worked with him at NBS TV says Babirukamu was a perfectionist and always never allowed room for mistakes in the course of his work.
He remembers a time when he was leading a digital campaign for a company and some of the people he was working with made some mistakes. They mixed up the graphics and the client blamed him.
“He blew up and then went to the toilet and cried. He came back, sat on his desk and remained speechless for hours. He did not want to mess up,” says the friend.
Small mistakes usually got to Babirukamu’s head so much so that he would spend days agonizing over them.
Secondly John did not have much of a social life. On the occasions that he went out, he would try to make the best of his time.
His preferred drink was Guinness. A cold Guinness, he would always add.
Besides Guinness, he was fascinated by teas. Yes, tea. Babirukamu had a collection of various tea spices that he talked about endlessly.
Yet most times, he always kept his problems to himself. He is someone who could sit on his computer and work quietly for an entire day.
At times he would leave office at 10.00 PM, having arrived at 7.00 AM. He lived a sedentary lifestyle and had a soft spot for junk food.
When friends often told him that he needed to do he often brushed them off.
Friends also say he rarely talked about his family or love life.
At the time of his death, he was general manager at the Hedge Marketing Agency. He previously served at MTN as digital marketing manager, at NBS TV as head of digital and at NTV, Uganda Breweries Limited, Equity Bank, BRAC, Sheraton Kampala among others.
Eulogy from Dr Joel Isabirye, Babirukamu’s friend
I received an RIP flash, suggesting that John Birungi Babirukamu had passed on. I called up a few people who confirmed that he had taken his life by jumping off Tagore Living building in Kamwokya after sending messages to his family group:
I first met John when he worked as a web designer and business development officer for Imaginet Uganda, a digital solutions company that was owned by Wensi Nuwagaba.
John brought their proposal to design a website for Capital Radio, the week I was leaving. Once he knew I had camped at Dembe FM, he came over with the same proposal. We adopted some of what he had on offer, particularly customized emails for the Dembe team. He was an aggressive marketer.
We then worked on a few other projects, and before I knew it, he had left Imaginet Uganda and joined Kin Group of Companies working with ODDMAN, one of the companies that constituted the group. Kin Group of Companies emerged out of Kin Systems a digital solutions company that Dr. Kin Kariisa founded.
Subsequently, Dr. Kariisa decided to separate the media companies from the non-media businesses by forming Next Media. One of ODDMAN’s tasks was to create a strong digital presence for NBS when few knew that the digital era had come to stay. The sister company set up a formidable social media unit for NBS and drove the numbers to great heights.
Then John moved to various other companies, including but not limited to MTN Uganda, QG Group, Hedge Marketing and Kwezara Digital, and except for a few occasions when I found him around Fraine Supermarket in Ntinda where I believed he did his shopping, we had not sat down to chat for a while.
He had become a household name in marketing circles, particularly because he had such a mastery of the digital marketing space that was a new development and not only could he talk digital, he could simultaneously and practically develop technological solutions.
Last week on 23rd May 2024 at 10.40am, John called me on behalf of the team that was organizing a presentation on data-driven advertising to the Uganda Marketers Association and Uganda Advertisers Association.
Then he sent me a Whatsapp message that he also wanted me to do a presentation SOON on understanding the mechanics of audience measurement research. That SOON could not come to pass.
In John’s passing, we have lost a great resource
May His Soul Rest in Eternal Peace!
