UGANDA: CONFUSION MARRED KING OYO HEIR, CLAN LEADERS REJECT THE DECEASED WILL-QUEEN MOTHER HEADS TO COURT

The Babiito and Tooro royal family are divided over King Oyo succession as the close family rejected the new King heir, splitting the Tooro Kingdom apart. Queen Mother Best Kemigisa is ready to wage another legal battle to turn down the new Tooro king, as she did 32 years ago when her husband, King Patrick Matthew Kaboyo Olima III, was killed under dubious circumstances in Kampala, the house of Tooro Prime Minister that led to condemning him to life imprisonment.

The burial of Tooro King Oyo’s prior burial 9 days of mourning was cut short by a lot of fighting and a lot of exchanges of words generated by divided Tooro royal clan members of Babiito who the next King of Tooro should be.

The two sons of Musunga, head of clan leader, the current leader, stood firm against their father siding with Queen Mother Best Kemigisa, denouncing the new Tooro King. The two sons claimed that their father retired from serving King Oyo two years ago; he has no duty to chair the crowning of Tooro’s new King. The two sons asserted.

“You are illegally running the Tooro Prime Minister docket; he is in office illegally, the children of the clan leader are on the side of the King’s mother, as stated in the will of the late Oyo. There is a will that the wife has a son of 10 years old who is the rightful heir to the throne.” The two sons claimed.

A source who intimated in confidence about the son of King Oyo, but asked for the anonymous, argued that the wife of King Oyo, who is the in-law of Queen Mother Best Kemigisa, was allegedly tortured by King Oyo’s mother and was chased out of their wedlock in disgrace.

“Because the mother of King Oyo mistreated her daughter-in-law, coupled with the hostile environment being orchestrated by Tooro royal clan members, the son of the King Oyo was feared to appear and be introduce during the period strife, for fear of possible elimination because as power struggle rage on, the source intimated.

All along the mourning period, Tooro Babiito clan members were still divided; another section was pro-King Oyo family members, in favour. However, when Kiijanangoma, a head of the Tooro clan, appeared and announced the new King of Tooro, people burst into applause; they celebrated the new king of Tooro, saying that their lineage of the King Oyo family has been weak, with the gene dying whenever the new king is crowned.

The day Best Kemigisa was talking, she was crying greeted Kiijanangoma; people burst into jubilation because the Luo Babiito clan were not expecting her to greet the clan leader, the head of the Luo Babiito. King Oyo’s heir was not introduced to the public until during King Oyo’s last send-off, when he was introduced to the public

The best scenario happened during the 9 days declared to mourn Tooro King Oyo: indeed, the other son of King Oyo, if he comes up during the trying moment. Now, after the crowning of King Oyo’s heir, if his son shows up, there will be a reversal of where the ritual is performed; the legal battle will be versus the cultural ritual.

The worst scenario, Rev. Father Charles Oyo argued that will be written by King Oyo- his wishes as a person- does not counter the Luo Babiito clan decision; the King will be only his opinion.

President Museveni appealed to the Luo Babiito Tooro to be peaceful and follow the cultural norms; President Museveni pledged to work with the new King. His condolence message was read by Uganda’s August Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa, at St. John Cathedral. He appealed to Batooro means to solve these issues from the vacant throne of the new king, the ritual that clears the reign and begins another.

The death of King Oyo opened a new chapter of war

Social and political scientist Okumu Livingstone Langol, Uganda. Argued that the new chapter in the Luo Babiito Tooro kingdom has been rewritten by the palace coup led by Andrew Mwenda, who doubled as spokesman of the clan.

Andrew Mwenda, the nephew of the Tooro royal family, pitched camp when the demise of King Oyo was announced, immediately to orchestrate his power through connections with the power that be; he backed Kiijanangoma to instigate the Omukama who will take the reign. The Nyabongo II has not decisively addressed the succession question.

Andrew Mwenda, the kingmaker of the Luo Babiito Tooro, instead opened a new chapter in one of the most serious disputes in the arena to confront the royal family. He orchestrated the 19 members of 21 members committee to endorse and sign in favour of Kijanangoma, whom the committee described as the second-priority candidate after the first choice. When George (Kamarisi declined the kingship.

However, almost immediately, the members of King Oyo rejected the proclamations. Later, Queen Mother Best Kemigisa, through her Twitter handle, voiced her concern, saying her son had left a will setting out the order of succession.

Prince Ruth Kemantale, Oyo’s elder sister, also rejected the proclamation and condemned the act as a palace coup ‘deter, stating that the late King Oyo had indicated that his son should succeed him

The dispute has consequently become inseparable from King Oyo’s final journey as he was being buried today. The King’s mother, Best Kemigisa, decried and warned that the current conflict reopened painful memories of 1995, when King Oyo himself became King of Tooro, the Luo Babiito aged just three years old.

Following King Oyo’s father’s death, Omukama Patrick Matthew Kaboya Olima III. What happened, the same Babiito clan members rejected King Oyo, saying he was too young at the age of three years old to be king and that his father, Omukama Patrick Matthew Kaboya Olima III, had left no will naming a successor, so his uncle should take over the throne according to the will of Omukama Rukidi.

The late Queen Mother Kemigisa went to court until King Oyo prevailed as such, for Kemigisa, the parallel with the current dispute is deeply personal, pitting her against the strong, powerful Andrew Mwenda, backed by the deep state, when she came from the US where she was taking care of the sick King Oyo. Instead of Andrew Mwenda and Kiijanangoma fighting King Oyo’s demise, she expected them and the Luo Babiito to mourn him.

Thus, she found herself defending what she considers her deceased son’s right to determine the succession; the best mother, Kemigisa she is facing mountain the Babiito clan members who celebrated at the bloody war. Castigating the selection process did not help her establish whether King Oyo had left instructions concerning his successor

What next

The sequence standoff has centred on a range of issue the revolve around whether one, the wishes of the reigning Omukama, expressed in a will, can determine succession to a traditional throne, or two, Prince Kiijanangoma was the elder brother of the new King of Tooro, who is yet to be crowned.

The prince had previously been at the centre of controversy within the late King Oyo. Kiijanangoma, however, publicly stated he had ambitions of becoming King, arguing that he wanted to unite the Batooro and rebuild the Kingdom structure, which he accused King Oyo of having mismanaged. He was accused by the Musunga of allegedly plotting to overthrow the late King Oyo