The selection of a new king for a Ugandan kingdom has faced strong opposition after a committee from the Babiito royal clan chose Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, APA can report on Friday.
The news anchor for the public broadcaster UBC was selected as the next king of Tooro, Uganda.
Kijanangoma would succeed the late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV who died late in August while receiving cancer treatment in the US.
The opposition came when Princess Ruth Komuntale, the late king’s sister produced a will, which she said was drafted by the then king in 2022, designating “a biological son” as heir, without giving his name.
Komuntale also accused the selection committee of conspiring against her and the Queen Mother.
The mother of a Ugandan traditional king, Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who died last month but was once the world’s youngest monarch, said Thursday she was being held against her will in the palace with other members of the royal family over a succession dispute.
This came as a surprise to many in the Tooro elite, who had never heard of the son, and chose to exclude him from the vote.
“A king cannot sleep with a prostitute on the street or a house maid, produce a son and it is hoisted onto the throne,” Andrew Mwenda, a powerful figure in Uganda who hails from Tooro, said on X.
“This is not to suggest that Oyo did any of this. It is simply to say that he was not officially married, and if he left a son, Toro needs to know the mother and her background,” he added.
Mwenda is a close associate of President Yoweri Museveni’s son, the army chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who wields growing control over the country and has vowed to take over after his father.
Despite this, a formal declaration of the new king is expected to take place as early as next week.
Oyo was the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he took the throne of the Ugandan kingdom – with a population of 800,000 – aged three in 1995.
Mr Nyimba’s body arrived back in at Entebbe International Airport on Friday ahead of the burial on September 12.
Following his death, Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni and the nation’s Chief of Defence Forces General Muhoozi Kainerugaba reportedly endorsed the selection by the kingdom’s Royal Succession Committee.
Uganda is a republic but officially recognises traditional kings, who serve mainly as cultural institutions with limited political power.
On Thursday, Queen Kemigisa released a statement saying troops had “removed the royal guards without notice, and… were deployed around the palace.”
“We cannot leave or receive people freely. We are under house arrest,” she added.
MG/as/APA