The mother of Uganda’s late Tooro king, Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, said Thursday she and other royals were being kept against their will in the palace days before his burial.
Queen Mother Best Kemigisa said troops were deployed after royal guards were withdrawn, restricting the family’s movement. She appealed to President Museveni to let them bury her son in peace.
King Oyo died on 27 August in the United States while receiving cancer treatment. He was 34. Crowned at age three in 1995, he was once the world’s youngest reigning monarch. Burial is set for Saturday near Fort Portal.
A Babiito clan committee on Wednesday named his cousin, UBC news anchor Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, as successor. The family rejected the choice, saying Oyo’s 2022 will named a biological son as heir. The son has not been publicly identified.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​