Toro did not go for drama. It went for blood.
On 9 September 2026, inside Karuzika Palace in Fort Portal, the succession committee of the Babiito Clan – the royal clan that has produced every King of Toro for 200 years — ended the speculation. They elected Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma as the new Omukama of Toro, to succeed his cousin Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV who died on 27 August.
It is official. The journalist is now the king.
If you watched UBC TV any night in the last five years, you know his face. Calm, deep voice, Luganda and English, reading UBC News Tonight without shouting. Senior news editor. Professional. Not a prince dancing at Empango for cameras. A working man.
That is what makes this choice so interesting and so clever.
Who is he?
Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma is the son of the late Prince Christopher Paul Kijanangoma. His grandfather is Omukama Sir George David Rukidi Kamurasi III, one of Toro’s most respected kings, the man who built Toro in the modern Uganda. So by blood, he is pure Babiito. Grandson of a king, son of a prince, cousin to Oyo. Not a distant relative from the edge of the family tree. Core royal.
He married Rebecca Amoding in December 2018 at Watoto Church. A Christian marriage, public, not secret palace politics. He has lived as an ordinary elite Ugandan — job, wife, church — not as a prince waiting for a throne.
And that ordinary life is exactly why the Babiito elders chose him.
Think about what Toro has been through in the last two weeks. Oyo died at 33. Suddenly. No will read in public, no clear heir, WhatsApp groups announcing Prince David Kijanangoma, generals reportedly endorsing Prince Calvin. Fort Portal was becoming Kampala – too much noise, too many uniforms, too many hotels where kings are made.
The Babiito Clan did what it has done since 1822 when Kaboyo Kasunsu left Bunyoro to found Toro. They sat down as a clan, not as a pressure group. They checked the lineage. They checked the blood. They checked the character. And they elected.
This is not a Ugandan government appointment. The Constitution of Uganda says cultural leaders are chosen by their clans according to their customs. The Babiito committee is that custom. They have spoken.
Why Edward makes sense for both the village and Kololo:
For the ordinary Mutooro in Kijura, Kyegegwa, and Harugongo, he is a familiar face. Not an unknown prince from London. He speaks on TV every night. He is not arrogant. He has not been in scandals. He married in church. That matters in Toro, which is deeply Anglican and Catholic.
For the elite: the lawyers, the ministers, the businessmen from Toro who live in Nakasero: he is educated, media-trained, presentable. He can meet the Pope, meet the President, meet investors, and not embarrass the kingdom. He has interviewed ministers; now ministers will bow to him. That transition is easier for a journalist than for a prince who has only ever lived in the palace.
But the real test starts now.
Toro’s kingship is not just wearing a crown and sitting on a chair. It is rituals. It is the Okukorra, the traditional coronation rites in the forest, the drinking of milk, the spear, the drums. Edward will have to leave the newsroom and enter the shrine. He will have to stop being Edward the anchor and become Rukidi, the 13th or 14th Omukama, depending on how you count.
He will have to unite a family that has been fighting openly. His election will not be accepted by everyone. In Toro succession, there is always a Prince who says “it should be me.” That is normal. What matters is whether the clan stands firm.
And he will have to answer the question every Toro king after Rukidi III has faced: Are you a king for Museveni or a king for Batooro? Oyo managed to balance it. He was loved in State House and loved in Fort Portal. Edward, coming from UBC – the state broadcaster will be watched very closely. People will ask, is he too close to government? Can he tell the government the truth about land, about poverty in Toro, about the kingdom’s properties?
His background as a journalist may actually help him there. Journalists know how to ask hard questions. Now he will have to answer them.
For now, Toro has chosen.
Not the loudest prince. Not the richest prince. Not the one with the most soldiers behind him.
A news reader. A grandson of Rukidi III. A man whose father Christopher never became king, but whose son now will.
From reading the news to becoming the news. That is Toro’s new story.
And Karuzika has a king again.
