Uganda’s King Oyo buried amid bitter succession dispute

As mourners gathered in western Uganda on Saturday for the burial of King Oyo, his Tooro kingdom is embroiled in a bitter dispute over his successor.

Oyo’s mother says she is being held against her will in the palace with other members of the royal family.

Oyo died in the United States last month while being treated for cancer. Aged just 34, he was unmarried and had no official heir.

Uganda is a republic but recognises traditional kings. They have little political power but wield authority as guardians of tribal culture.

A selection committee from the Babiito royal clan announced Oyo’s cousin Edward as the next king. But Oyo’s sister opposes the plan and what she called the “evil vultures” conspiring against her and her mother.

She says Oyo left a will designating his “biological son” as his heir but Tooro officials say they’ve never heard of the child.

“A king cannot sleep with a prostitute on the street or a house maid, produce a son and it is hoisted onto the throne,” Andrew Mwenda, a powerful figure in Uganda who hails from Tooro, said on social media.

“This is not to suggest that Oyo did any of this. It is simply to say that he was not officially married, and if he left a son, Toro needs to know the mother and her background,” he added.

Mwenda is a close associate of President Yoweri Museveni’s son, the army chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who wields growing control over the country and has vowed to take over after his father.

Queen Mother Best Kemigisa released a statement on Thursday saying troops had “removed the royal guards without notice, and… were deployed around the palace.”

“We cannot leave or receive people freely. We are under house arrest,” she said.