Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a 56-year-old former television news anchor, was crowned king of Uganda's Tooro Kingdom on Tuesday, becoming the 13th monar
Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a 56-year-old former television news anchor, was crowned king of Uganda’s Tooro Kingdom on Tuesday, becoming the 13th monarch of the Batooro people and ending a succession dispute that had divided the kingdom.
He took the royal name Edward Rukidi Nyabongo I in a ritual-filled ceremony at the Karuziika Royal Palace in Fort Portal, which included a walk of about two and a half miles to the palace, a mock fight, the slaughter of a bull and the sprinkling of hen’s blood.
President Yoweri Museveni joined the celebrations, and the new king promised: “to get good things for our people”.
Nyabongo I worked as a news anchor and editor at the state broadcaster UBC and has been a recognised broadcast journalist in Uganda and Rwanda for about two decades.
He succeeds his cousin, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who died last month in the United States, aged 34, while being treated for cancer.
King Oyo became a global curiosity in 1995 when he was enthroned at the age of three, and he led the kingdom of about 800,000 people for 31 years.
The succession was contested because the late king’s mother said a previously undisclosed son was entitled to the throne.
King Oyo was unmarried and not publicly known to have children, and the kingdom’s prime minister first mentioned a child in the statement announcing his death.
Charles Kayondo Kamurasi, head of the royal Babiito clan and the traditional king-maker, said the clan knew of no child and had followed Tooro’s customs, and a 21-member clan committee selected Kijanangoma.
A source told Reuters that Uganda’s central government pushed the decision through over the mother’s objections.
Uganda is a constitutional republic, and its four pre-colonial kingdoms remain influential symbols of identity and heritage without holding any political power.
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