By Aggrey Baba
Minister of State for Minerals Phiona Nyamutooro has revealed how her name repeatedly drew her into the affairs of Tooro Kingdom and eventually created a special bond between her and the late Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV.
Nyamutooro made the revelation on Sunday night as she paid tribute to the fallen Tooro monarch during a vigil at his Buziga Palace, where she was accompanied by her celebrity husband, BET Award-winning Ugandan musician Eddy Kenzo.
In her tribute, Nyamutooro said that throughout her leadership journey, her name had almost automatically made people associate her with Tooro, despite her coming from Nebbi.
“I know very many of you would confess that by mention of my name, you automatically think I’m Toro,” Nyamutooro said.
She recalled that her association with Tooro began as early as her days at Makerere University, where she served as Vice Guild President of the 81st Guild under Guild President Barnabas Rukirabashaija.
According to Nyamutooro, her position at the university was at the time jokingly interpreted by fellow students as a reflection of Tooro’s influence because the guild president was from the kingdom.
“Everyone said, that is the tribe coming. She’s vice president because the guild president is from Toro,” she recalled.
Her association with the kingdom deepened when she later moved to the National Youth Council, where she worked alongside Hon. Edson Rugumayo.
Nyamutooro said that when elections were held in Fort Portal, people repeatedly encouraged Rugumayo to form an alliance with her because she was perceived to be a Tooro stakeholder.
It was around this period, she said, that her colleagues helped give her a Tooro name.
She initially wanted the name “Abwooli,” which she explained meant someone who resembles another person, but was told the name was reserved for men. She was instead given a female name, which further strengthened the perception that she was from Tooro.
Her connection with the kingdom became even more pronounced after she won the position of National Female Youth Member of Parliament.
Nyamutooro said the first congratulatory message she received after her victory came from Tooro Kingdom.
“I was laughing at Edson. I told him, your kingdom has congratulated me before you. I’m a better stakeholder,” she said.
But it was her first personal encounter with King Oyo that appears to have transformed the relationship from one based largely on a name into a genuine connection with the young monarch.
Nyamutooro recalled that during one of her official activities in Fort Portal, she passed by the kingdom with colleagues to pay homage to the King.
When she introduced herself to Oyo as “Phiona Nyamutooro,” she said the young King immediately responded as though he had been waiting for her.
“The moment he saw me, and I stood, I introduced myself and said, Your Majesty, Phiona Nyamutooro. He said, Aha, I have been waiting for you. From the time you won your election, you have not come to the kingdom. Why is that?”
According to Nyamutooro, Oyo questioned why a national leader who was widely regarded as a Tooro stakeholder through her name had remained distant from the kingdom.
“He said, ‘You are a national leader, and you are so far away from the kingdom. I need you to come and work with your fellow young people,’” she recalled.
Nyamutooro attempted to explain that she was actually from Nebbi, but Oyo was apparently unconvinced.
She said the King instead told her that their connection would be resolved through history, promising to inform her king that the Luo Babito were one people.
The late monarch subsequently encouraged her to participate in youth activities organized by Tooro Kingdom, a commitment Nyamutooro said she promised to honour.
She revealed that the relationship had continued to grow, with Oyo later insisting that she be invited as chief guest at a youth conference the kingdom had been planning.
Nyamutooro said she had only recently been informed by the Deputy Prime Minister of Tooro that preparations for the youth function were underway and that Oyo had personally insisted on her invitation.
“Even with his demise, later on the function shall still be organised, and in his honour, I will be there,” she said.
Reflecting on Oyo’s wider place in the lives of Ugandans, Nyamutooro described him as a gift to the country, particularly to the generation that grew up watching him ascend the throne as a young monarch.
“King Oyo was a gift to Uganda,” she said, noting that those born in the 1990s grew up seeing the young King and therefore felt a special connection to him.
Nyamutooro said she had found Oyo particularly passionate about Tooro and deeply interested in young people and their potential to contribute to the kingdom’s development.
“He always wanted to reach out towards many young minds that he would see mushrooming, and ask them how best can he tap into their potential for the development of Toro,” she said, further describing his death as a painful loss not only to the Tooro royal family and kingdom but to Uganda as a whole, mourning the passing of a young and patriotic King. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
