A TV journalist on Tuesday was crowned king of Uganda’s Tooro kingdom one month after the death of its late monarch, APA can report on Wednesday.
Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, with decades of broadcast experience, was formally proclaimed the new leader of the East African kingdom and was ushered into the palace and formally unveiled to his followers.
Traditional kingdoms were banned in the 1960s, after Uganda’s independence from British colonial rule, by a republican president who said that he wanted to unify the country. They were restored in 1993.
Traditional leaders don’t wield any formal authority in this East African country and are legally barred from engaging in partisan politics. But they wield immense authority among their people as guardians of traditional culture.
The coronation ceremony in Fort Portal, a remote town in western Uganda and not far from the Congo border, was watched by thousands in person and on televised broadcasts. Speaking at the event, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni urged traditional leaders to promote local languages.
In a brief speech at his coronation, Nyabongo pledged to be a unifying figure for all his people. Before his enthronement, the monarch told the local New Vision newspaper that “heritage must be matched by discipline and hard work. My family never let me treat royal descent as an entitlement; it was presented to me as a duty to prepare for.”
Nyabongo wasn’t particularly high in the line of succession, but elders within the kingdom’s ruling clan, known as the Babiito, selected him from a pool of eligible princes after King Oyo Nyimba’s death from cancer at age 34 in August without a publicly known heir.
The queen mother, Best Kemigisa, disputed that decision and charged that the written will of King Oyo hadn’t been followed in the selection of Nyabongo.
Kemigisa said that Oyo left behind a young son whose identity would be unveiled at the right time, casting doubt on the legitimacy of Nyabongo and the decision of the Babiito to choose him.
Although Oyo’s alleged son has yet to be revealed, purported photos of a “Baby Oyo” have flooded social media, giving hope to devotees of the deceased monarch. But critics say that the child, if he exists, should have been introduced to the kingdom’s elders while his father was still alive.
MG/abj/APA