KAMPALA: The traditional Ugandan kingdom of Tooro was plunged into a bitter succession battle on Thursday after the family of the late king, Oyo Nyimba, rejected clan members’ choice of a television news anchor to succeed him.
While Uganda is a constitutional republic, it has several ancient kingdoms whose leaders are revered as symbols of tradition and wield vast social influence.
King Oyo, who became the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he took the throne in 1995 as a 3-year-old boy, died on August 27 at the age of 34 in the United States, where he had been receiving treatment for cancer. He is scheduled to be buried on Saturday.
News anchor named new king
The royal clan’s succession committee announced on Wednesday that it had chosen Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a news anchor and editor at the state-run broadcaster UBC, as the new king. Kijanangoma is a cousin of the late king.
But hours after the committee made its announcement, Oyo’s sister, Princess Ruth Komuntale, told a press conference that her brother’s will indicated that his son should succeed him.
The kingdom’s spokesperson shared a copy of the relevant portion of the will, which is dated September 14, 2022. It states: “I hereby declare and direct that if, at the date of my death, I am survived by a Son lawfully recognized as my biological Son, I appoint him as my heir to the Throne of the Kingdom of Tooro.”
In a statement published early on Thursday, Oyo’s mother, Queen Kemigisa, denounced a “self-appointed group of clan members” who had selected a new king despite having had the will read to them hours earlier.
She said that Uganda’s military had also removed royal guards from the palace without notice and placed the family under house arrest.
A spokesperson for Uganda’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Members of the succession committee could not be immediately reached for comment.
Identity of son unknown
King Oyo, a U.N. goodwill ambassador who championed the fight against HIV and AIDS, never married and was not known to have any children.
The kingdom’s prime minister, Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki, revealed the son’s existence in a social media post on August 27 announcing Oyo’s death. He said the late king left behind “a Prince as his heir, whose identity will be formally revealed at the appropriate time”.
Andrew Mwenda, a prominent Ugandan journalist and relative of the royal family, wrote on X on Thursday that Oyo’s family had not been able to produce a photo of the purported son and declined to disclose details about the family of the boy’s mother.
He added that, in Tooro, a king’s son could only succeed him if he were born to a queen officially married to the king.
Prime Minister Armstrong called on Thursday for calm from all sides of the dispute.
“There will be time to examine the Will, to hear those advancing a different position, and to consider our customs, the applicable law and the proper institutions through which succession should be determined,” he wrote on X.
“That process should take place calmly and credibly, not through competing announcements, confrontation, or attempts to establish facts on the ground while our King still awaits burial.”
