FORT PORTAL, Uganda — A succession dispute in Uganda’s Tooro Kingdom has intensified following the death of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, with the kingdom’s prime minister warning rival factions against allowing the contest for the throne to overshadow the monarch’s funeral.
Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki has called for restraint after a group within the Babiito royal clan announced a successor while members of the late king’s family have pointed to a Will they say contains Oyo’s wishes on succession.
In an appeal for peace and unity, Rwomiire said the competing claims were serious but should not be settled while the kingdom was still mourning.
“Let us first bury our King,” Rwomiire said.
The prime minister’s intervention highlights an emerging rift between the Babiito clan, the traditional royal clan from which Tooro’s kings are drawn, and members of King Oyo’s family over who should eventually occupy the throne.
“On one hand, a group has announced a new King. On the other, there is a Will left by the late Omukama containing his expressed wishes regarding succession,” Rwomiire said.
He did not endorse either position.
Instead, he said there would be time to examine the Will, hear those advancing competing claims and consider Tooro customs, Ugandan law and the institutions responsible for determining succession.
“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.”
Rival claims over the Tooro throne
The dispute follows the death of King Oyo, who died aged 34 after a period of illness.
The Babiito-led succession process has announced Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma as successor.
But members of Oyo’s family have rejected the move, arguing that the late king left a biological son whose claim should be considered.
The disagreement has raised a fundamental question for the kingdom: who has the authority to determine Tooro’s next king, the traditional Babiito succession structures or the expressed wishes of the late monarch and his family?
The Babiito position has been that the traditional clan process must determine succession.
Members of Oyo’s family, meanwhile, have pointed to the reported Will and the existence of an heir they say was left by the late king.
The competing claims have yet to produce a settlement.
Appeals to government
Rwomiire also appealed to the Ugandan government to help maintain peace and order, while explicitly rejecting any suggestion that the state should select Tooro’s next king.
“This is not a request for Government to choose a King for Tooro,” he said.
Rather, he asked the government to help preserve the conditions necessary for cultural, legal and institutional processes to proceed peacefully and without intimidation.
He also called for respected elders, cultural leaders and other credible figures to help guide the kingdom through the dispute.
The prime minister’s appeal comes as Tooro prepares to bury Oyo, whose three-decade reign began when he was only three years old.
‘Tooro must come first’
Rwomiire warned that the succession dispute risked creating divisions at a moment when the kingdom was already grieving.
“Tooro is bigger than any one of us, and the Crown is too important to become the prize in a contest conducted in the middle of our mourning.”
He urged the rival sides to lower the temperature and avoid inflammatory language.
“We can disagree without destroying one another,” he said. “We can defend our positions without insensitive language.”
The prime minister said the history of the succession dispute would ultimately be judged not only by its outcome but by how the people of Tooro behaved following the king’s death.
“History will remember not only how the succession question was resolved, but also how we behaved when our King died.”
For now, Rwomiire’s message is that the succession question should wait.
“Let us mourn together. Let us bury our King with honour. Then, with dignity, fairness and respect, let the truth and the proper process guide what comes next.”
He ended with a message that could become the defining phrase of the kingdom’s delicate transition:
“In whatever we do, Tooro must come first.”
