Fort Portal is mourning in two languages. In Rutooro, they say _Omukama Atulize_ — the King is at rest. In the political language of Kampala, they say the throne is vacant. And when a throne is vacant in Uganda, everyone moves faster than custom allows.
King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV is not yet buried. His body only returned to Uganda from Texas on Thursday. His funeral is set for September 12, the very date he was crowned as a three-year-old boy in 1995. The official mourning period, by the Omusuuga’s own clarification, hasn’t even started. Yet on that same Thursday, September 4, from a hotel boardroom at Fort Motel, news broke that Tooro has a new king.
George Desmond Kamurasi, 36. Son of Prince Jimmy Mugenyi. Grandson of King George Rukidi III. Cousin to the late Oyo. Fifteen votes out of eighteen clan elders present. A neat, concluded matter.
Except it is not.
Who announced a king?
That is the first crack in the story. The announcement did not come from Karuzika Palace. It did not come from the Omusuuga, Charles Akiiki Kamurasi, who by Tooro custom is the custodian of the kingdom when a king dies. It did not come from the Omuhikirwa, the Prime Minister.
It came from Andrew Mwenda. A Mutooro, yes. A journalist, yes. But also the most vocal spokesman of the MK Movement and PLU, and a personal confidant of Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
Mwenda is not Babiito by the succession lineage. He does not sit on the 21-member Royal Succession Committee selected on August 28. So why is he the one telling Uganda who the next Omukama is, hours before the clan leaders themselves have been formally briefed?
His own statement gives us the answer, perhaps unintentionally. In the same breath as announcing Kamurasi, he announces that he has briefed the CDF of the UPDF, who is also chairman of PLU, and the Commander Land Forces. That the CDF fully endorses the choice. That President Museveni supports it. That a senior cabinet minister has been sent to Fort Portal.
Since when does the choice of Omukama of Tooro need endorsement from the army headquarters in Kampala? Tooro is a constitutional cultural institution. Its succession is governed by its own customs, precedents, and the Babiito clan laws, not by the UPDF high command. By dragging Gen Muhoozi and President Museveni into a cultural matter that is still in the funeral tent, Mwenda turned a royal succession into a political succession.
This is what has angered many Batooro, both ordinary and elite. The timing is offensive. The optics are worse.
The Child No One Can See
The second crack is more serious. It is about blood.
When Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire announced Oyo’s death on August 27, his statement had one line that everyone missed until now: “His Majesty leaves behind a Prince as his heir, whose identity will be formally revealed at the appropriate time.”
President Museveni repeated it at the airport when receiving the body. Queen Mother Best Kemigisa told him Oyo left a son. This is not a rumor from the streets of Mpanga.
Then the Omusuuga stood up and said the opposite: “We as the clan do not know that child. No child has been shown to us.”
So where is the truth? Tooro cannot have two truths. Either Oyo, who was 34 and unmarried in public, left a son, or he did not.
If he did, Tooro custom is very clear. The son of the King, if acknowledged by the clan, is the natural heir. You don’t bypass him to go back to the will of his grandfather, George Rukidi III. You present the child, you verify him by the clan elders, you protect him until he is of age, with a regency if necessary. That is what was done for Oyo himself when he was three.
If there is no child, then the return to the Rukidi III lineage is legitimate. Prince Jimmy Mugenyi was indeed second in line to his brother Olimi Kaboyo II. His son, George Kamurasi, would be a legitimate, mature, educated heir. At 36, he avoids another long regency.
But you cannot answer this question with a vote in a hotel. You answer it with proof. If there is a child, the Kingdom owes Tooro a DNA test, a clan introduction, and a formal disqualification if he is not royal. You don’t just say “we don’t know him” and move on. If there is no child, then the Queen Mother and the Prime Minister owe Tooro an explanation for why they announced a ghost heir.
Asking for a DNA test is not being un-cultural. It is being modern and transparent. Blood is not decided by 15 hands raised in Fort Motel. It is decided by blood.
The Firing of the Prime Minister
The third crack is power. A day before the Kamurasi vote, the Omusuuga chaired a meeting of Babiito clan leaders and asked the acting Omuhikirwa, Calvin Rwomiire, to step down because his boss had died.
Customarily, the Omusuuga is indeed the custodian of the Kingdom during an interregnum. He can suspend palace operations. But firing a sitting Omuhikirwa who was appointed by the late King, before the King is buried, before the royal will is read, looks like a purge, not a transition.
The Prime Minister had just said: “No other activities except funeral.” The Omusuuga’s camp said: “We are proceeding with succession.” That is the real fight. One side wants the funeral to be the funeral. The other side wants to secure the throne before the funeral dust settles, lest the “other heir” narrative gains ground.
That is why the announcement says “we await the Omusuuga to make a formal announcement officially to the Babiito clan leaders after burial.” It is a contradiction. You say you will announce after burial, but you have already announced before burial to “avoid social media speculation.” You created the speculation you claimed to avoid.
What Tooro Needs Now
Tooro is not a small chiefdom. It is a 190-year-old kingdom that survived colonialism, Obote’s abolition, and Museveni’s restoration. Its strength has always been procedure.
If George Desmond Kamurasi is to be Omukama — and he may well be a very capable Omukama — his coronation must be beyond question. It must not start with the feeling that he was flown in by generals, announced by a political operative, and voted in while his cousin’s body was still at the airport.
Three things must happen:
1. Let Oyo rest. Bury him on September 12 with full honor at Karuzika. No more votes until the mourning is over.
2. Clarify the heir. If Oyo left a son, the Queen Mother and the Prime Minister must present him to the Omusuuga and the Babiito, with proof. If there is no son, they must publicly withdraw that claim so Toro stops being divided.
3. Let the Babiito speak for themselves. Not through Kampala. The formal announcement must come from the Omusuuga to the clan, not from X, and it must explain why the Rukidi III will was preferred over direct descent.
Tooro does not need a king chosen for Kampala’s convenience. It needs a king chosen by Toro’s customs, for Toro’s people.
The palace has always been full of conspirators when a king dies. The difference this time is that the conspirators announced themselves.
