By Aggrey Baba
Ahead of his burial at the Karambi Royal Tombs on Saturday, September 12, the funeral of Tooro’s late King, Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru IV had become entangled in a bitter succession fight that threatened to turn his final resting place into a battleground over who would inherit the throne.
It was against this tense background that the parties to the dispute entered into a documented agreement designed to separate Oyo’s burial from the unresolved succession contest, including an arrangement under which the keys to his royal grave (Iziba) would be taken away and kept by the Government.
The agreement, contained in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed ahead of the burial, at the Karuziika Palace, barred anyone actively contesting or claiming the Tooro throne from entering the Royal Tombs during the funeral.
It also prohibited any succession-related ritual, declaration, installation or proclamation at the burial site.
Most significantly, immediately after Oyo was laid to rest, the tomb was to be closed and locked, with the keys handed to a neutral minister of Government.
The minister is not permitted to release, copy or use the keys without the agreement of the parties or a lawful court order.
The extraordinary security arrangement came as the Tooro royal establishment was sharply divided over who should succeed Oyo, who died in the United States on August 27 after undergoing cancer treatment for months.
The Babiito Royal Succession Committee selected Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma as the successor, but the decision was challenged by Oyo’s mother, Best Kemigisa, and his sister, Princess Ruth Komuntale.
The Queen Mother’s camp argued that Oyo had left a will providing for a biological son to succeed him, while the clan succession process proceeded with the former UBC news anchor as the new Omukama of Tooro.
The controversy was further inflamed by the emergence of the previously little-known alleged son, whose existence had not been publicly known within large sections of the royal family before Oyo’s death.
Andrew Mwenda, an authoritative Mutooro and one of the most vocal figures in the succession dispute, subsequently mounted a detailed public challenge to the Queen Mother’s account of events.
Mwenda disputed Kemigisa’s description of the group that selected Kijanangoma as a “self-appointed group of clan members”, arguing that more than 100 Babiito princes and princesses had met at Karuziika Palace on August 28, just a day after Oyo’s death, and selected a 21-member Royal Succession Committee.
According to Mwenda, the committee considered four possible successors, including the purported son of Oyo.
He alleged that the boy was presented to the committee by Patrick Kawamara, the Queen Mother’s brother, but that questions immediately arose over the child’s identity.
Mwenda said the child was initially presented as Jacob Oyo and later as Jackson Oyo, while the committee allegedly could not obtain a photograph of him.
He further claimed that when the committee sought details about the child’s maternal family in Tooro, those details were not provided, and that Oyo’s paternal relatives had not previously been informed that he had fathered a son.
These claims have become central to the succession dispute, although they remain contested allegations from one side of the royal-family conflict.
The Queen Mother and her camp, on the other hand, maintained that Oyo’s will settled the succession question and that the process leading to Kijanangoma’s selection disregarded the late King’s wishes.
Mwenda also challenged the argument that a biological son automatically becomes King under Tooro custom, saying questions surrounding the identity and background of the child’s mother would have to be addressed before the alleged heir could be accepted under the kingdom’s traditions.
The public confrontation created an unusually sensitive environment around Oyo’s funeral, and it was in this atmosphere that Government, representatives of the Queen Mother, the Musuuga of Tooro and the Royal Babito Clan agreed to ring-fence the burial from the succession dispute.
The MOU expressly states that the burial was to be “peaceful, dignified and respectful” and should not be used to advance any succession claim.
“No succession-related ritual, declaration, installation, proclamation or other act intended to recognize or advance any claimant to the throne shall take place at the Karambi Royal Tombs during the burial,” the agreement states.
The parties went even further by declaring that no person actively contesting or claiming the throne would be allowed into the Royal Tombs during the burial.
Yet, in a significant legal and political precaution, the agreement stopped short of recognizing either side in the succession dispute.
“Nothing in this MOU shall constitute recognition or rejection of any succession claim,” it states.
This effectively allowed the burial to proceed without the funeral itself being interpreted as an endorsement of either Kijanangoma or the rival claim based on Oyo’s alleged son.
The agreement also placed strict controls on access to the King’s Iziba, with only 20 people permitted to proceed there. Their names were required to be submitted in advance to Government and the Uganda Police Force, and no unauthorized person was to be allowed access.
Security within the agreed perimeter of the Royal Tombs was assigned to the Uganda Police Force, while the UPDF was not to be deployed inside the Royal Tombs perimeter except where required by law or in response to an immediate serious threat to life or national security.
The Queen Mother was allowed to attend with her own Royal Guard or security detail, but the detail was required to coordinate with the Police.
