A Cathedral Full of Mourners
By the time the service began at St. John’s Cathedral in Fort Portal, the pews could no longer hold everyone who had come.
Thousands of Ugandans from all walks of life filled the cathedral and spilled into the grounds around it, gathered to bid a final farewell to His Majesty Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, the late King of Tooro.
Among them was the Minister for the Presidency and MP for Budiope West, Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda.
She was joined by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Thomas Tayebwa, a wide circle of government dignitaries, cultural leaders, and mourners who had travelled from across the country.
Afterward, Minister Babalanda shared her reflections on the day in a statement posted to her official X account.
A King Remembered in World Records
Babalanda’s tribute began with the fact that had followed King Oyo his entire life.
She described him as a historic figure who will be remembered in world records as the youngest reigning monarch.
“His Majesty King Oyo ascended the throne at just three years old after the death of his father and ruled Tooro for nearly three decades,” Babalanda noted.
That reign, in fact, ran for almost exactly 31 years, ending one day before what would have been its anniversary, since the King was originally enthroned on 12th September 1995 following his father’s sudden death.
Babalanda did not understate the scale of the loss.
“King Oyo’s death was an immeasurable loss to the Tooro Kingdom and Uganda at large,” she added.
Gratitude to the President Who Carried the Cost
Much of Babalanda’s statement was devoted to thanking President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for the government’s handling of the King’s final journey.
“On behalf of the National Organising Committee, I wish to express our deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for according His Majesty King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV a befitting official burial,” she posted.
She detailed exactly what that support had involved.
According to Babalanda, President Museveni personally catered for the expenses tied to the King’s illness and his final journey home, including his medical treatment in the United States, the chartering of the flight that returned his body to Entebbe, and the organisation of his official send-off.
A Personal Bow at Entebbe
Babalanda gave particular weight to one moment in the weeks of mourning that preceded the burial.
She commended President Museveni for personally travelling to Entebbe International Airport to receive the King’s body.
There, the President laid a wreath and bowed before the casket, which had been draped in both the national flag and the flag of the Tooro Kingdom.
Babalanda described what that gesture meant to those watching.
“His personal presence spoke volumes about his respect for the institution of the Tooro Kingdom and traditional institutions in Uganda. This gesture comforted the entire Tooro fraternity and all Ugandans who cherished King Oyo,” Babalanda said.
She framed the President’s decision to grant an official burial as evidence of his broader commitment to national unity, culture, and the dignity of Uganda’s traditional institutions.
Why “Unity” Was More Than a Platitude
Babalanda’s appeal to the people of Tooro carried a specific instruction.
She urged the Batooro to remain united, calm and prayerful during this difficult period.
She also called on them to preserve and build upon the legacy the late monarch had left behind.
Those words landed at a moment when unity within the kingdom was, in fact, being tested.
In the days before the burial, a succession dispute had opened up within the Babiito royal clan, after a 21-member royal succession committee named a cousin of the late King, Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, as the next Omukama.
Queen Mother Best Kemigisa publicly disputed that decision, saying it disregarded a 2022 will that named King Oyo’s own biological son as first heir, with the identity of that son not yet publicly disclosed.
International reporting on the funeral noted that the King had died unmarried and had never formally declared an heir to Tooro’s elders, leaving open the possibility that the succession question could ultimately be settled in court rather than by the clan alone.
Set against that backdrop, Babalanda’s call for calm and unity reads less like a routine condolence line and more like a direct appeal to a kingdom at risk of dividing over exactly who should carry King Oyo’s legacy forward.
Closing a Reign at Karambi
King Oyo, who died on 27th August in the United States at the age of 34, was laid to rest at the Karambi Royal Tombs in Fort Portal.
The site, known traditionally as Amagasani, is the resting place reserved for Tooro’s kings, and King Oyo became only the fourth monarch to be buried there, following David Kyebambe Kasagama, Sir George David Kamurasi Rukidi III, and his own father, Patrick Matthew Kaboyo Olimi III.
Tooro Kingdom officials have said the burial itself would be governed largely by traditional Babiito rituals rather than by the earlier church service alone, with ritualists from designated clans overseeing rites at the tombs that are not open to the general public.
Those same officials have said that once the tomb is ceremonially closed, the Babiito clan will move to formally identify and install the new king, a process expected to unfold in the weeks following the burial.
A Verse for the Brokenhearted
Babalanda closed her tribute not with politics or protocol, but with scripture.
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit,” she wrote, citing Psalm 34:18.
It was a fitting note to end on, for a kingdom that had spent nine days mourning a king who spent virtually his entire life on the throne, and now faces the delicate work of deciding, amid grief, who should carry that throne forward.
King Oyo will be remembered for his long reign, for his role in the continuity of the Tooro Kingdom through three decades of change, and for the modern approach to cultural leadership he brought to an ancient institution.
May His Majesty King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV rest in eternal peace.
