Uganda’s King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, once the world’s youngest reigning monarch, was buried on Saturday at the Karambi Royal Tombs, days after a dispute erupted over who should succeed him in the traditional kingdom of Tooro.
Oyo’s appointed successor, the news anchor Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, cast nine coffee berries into the grave, marking the formal handover of power in the western Ugandan kingdom. The burial took place 31 years to the day after Oyo’s coronation.
Oyo made global headlines in 1995 when he took the throne at the age of three, images of the toddler king wearing a crown and royal robes sparking curiosity and adoration around the world. He died last month at 34 in the United States, where he was receiving treatment for cancer. During his reign he became a UN goodwill ambassador championing the fight against HIV and Aids.
Royal guards clad in orange shawls led the hearse through the streets of Fort Portal, the kingdom’s capital, as thousands of mourners joined the procession on foot. Oyo’s sister, Ruth Komuntale, eulogised him as a reserved but jovial young man. “Although he became king and carried responsibilities, he never completely lost the young boy who loved to have fun,” she said.
Tooro is one of Uganda’s traditional kingdoms, abolished in 1967 and restored in the 1990s under President Museveni. Their monarchs are recognised as cultural leaders rather than political rulers, and Uganda itself is led by an elected head of state.
The burial followed days of bickering within the royal family. A committee of the Babiito royal clan announced on Wednesday it had chosen Oyo’s 56-year-old cousin, Kijanangoma, a news anchor and editor at state broadcaster UBC. But the late king’s immediate family said his son, named in a will written in 2022, should succeed him. Oyo never married and was not known to have any children until the kingdom’s prime minister said in the statement announcing his death that he had a son. The boy’s identity has never been disclosed, and supporters of Kijanangoma’s succession say Oyo’s family has not been able to produce basic information about the purported son.
Oyo’s mother, Queen Best Kemigisa, said royal guards had been withdrawn from the palace and soldiers deployed, restricting the royal family’s movement and their ability to receive visitors, describing it as “house arrest”. Charles Karumasi, head of the Babiito clan, defended the choice: “We have done everything in observance of the culture and traditions of Tooro. We must all preserve peace and serenity.”
At the church service before the burial, the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu, urged unity. “Words spoken in grief can cause pain, division and conflict. It can even destroy the legacy of the king we are mourning,” he told mourners. President Museveni also called for the matter to be resolved and to favour unity over division.
Besides the throne, the new king will inherit a considerable royal estate including swathes of land and sizeable cash payouts from the central government.