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The Tooro Kingdom laid King Oyo Nyimba—once the world’s youngest reigning monarch—to rest alongside his royal ancestors on Saturday, seeking to resolve a fierce internal dispute over his successor.
Royal guards clad in orange shawls led a solemn procession through Fort Portal, Uganda, on Saturday, steering the hearse of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV toward St John’s Cathedral.
Hundreds of mourners, including high-ranking Ugandan officials and international chiefdom delegates, gathered to honour the monarch.
King Oyo captured global attention in 1995 when he ascended the Tooro Kingdom throne at just three years old. He passed away last month at age 34 while undergoing cancer treatment in the United States.
During his reign, he served as a United Nations goodwill ambassador advocating against HIV and AIDS and maintained notable international ties, including naming former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as a special royal adviser.
A bitter succession dispute gripped the royal family leading up to the burial ceremonies at the royal tombs.
While the late king’s immediate family claimed an undisclosed son named in Oyo’s will should take the throne, a committee of royal clan members rejected the assertion due to a lack of basic details about the child.
Instead, the clan committee selected Oyo’s 56-year-old cousin, Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a state broadcast journalist described by peers as quiet and humble.
Ugandan authorities intervened on Friday to cement Kijanangoma’s succession, allowing him to perform the required burial rite of casting nine coffee berries into the grave alongside the chief priest.
Following the resolution, Church of Uganda Archbishop Stephen Kazimba Mugalu urged the royal family to heal their divisions and preserve King Oyo’s enduring legacy.
