Uganda holding last-ditch talks over king's succession to allow him to be buried

KAMPALA, Sept 11 - Uganda's government is racing to help resolve a bitter royal succession dispute in the Tooro Kingdom after the death of monarch Oyo Nyimba aged 34, so he can be buried on Saturday, a spokesperson for the kingdom said on Friday.

King Oyo, who was crowned in 1995 at the age of 3, is due to be laid to rest in an official ceremony with thousands of mourners and dignitaries in attendance, but the funeral cannot proceed unless agreement is reached on who will succeed him to the throne.

The dispute erupted on Wednesday after a succession committee consisting of members of the royal clan announced it had chosen Oyo's cousin, Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a news anchor and editor at state broadcaster UBC, sparking fury among the late king's immediate family, notably his mother and sister who said it should be his hitherto unknown son.

Uganda is a constitutional republic and executive power is vested in an elected head of state but several ancient pre-colonial kingdoms still exist and their monarchies, seen as symbols of tradition and identity, wield enormous influence.

ALL SIDES ARE TALKING

Besides the throne, the new king will also inherit a considerable royal estate including swathes of land and sizeable cash payouts and other gifts from the central government on an ongoing basis.

"There are meetings going on between the royal family and the royal clan, so all sides involved are talking," Tooro Kingdom spokesperson Vincent Mugume said.

"The (central) government is also involved in the talks."

Mugume said the kingdom must have a new king by the time of burial to perform rituals that are reserved for the successor monarch. He declined to speculate on what would happen should the talks not reach a solution.

Another source with knowledge of the matter also confirmed to Reuters that meetings had been under way since Wednesday and that the government was exerting pressure on Oyo's mother, Queen Kemigisa, to embrace the succession committee's decision.

The government has made no public comment about the talks.

QUESTION OVER MYSTERY HEIR

Oyo's sister, Princess Ruth Komuntale, told a press conference this week that her brother's will indicated that his son should succeed him. The queen mother has also denounced a "self-appointed group of clan members" for selecting a new king despite having had the will read to them hours earlier.

King Oyo, a U.N. goodwill ambassador who championed the fight against HIV and AIDS, never married and was not known to have any children.

Andrew Mwenda, a prominent Ugandan journalist and relative of the royal family, wrote on X on Thursday that Oyo's family had not been able to produce a photo of the purported son and had declined to disclose details about the family of the boy's mother.

He added that, in Tooro, a king's son could only succeed him if he were born to a queen officially married to the king.

Kijanangoma, the committee's chosen successor, has been described by colleagues as unpretentious and reserved.

"He was very humble, down to earth ... he was a prince but he didn't carry that aura of a prince, you know, someone who is a snob to others, who feels so special," Denis Sigoa, a business editor at UBC, told private broadcaster NTV Uganda on Thursday.

Meanwhile, thousands of mourners, some dressed in traditional white tunics and bark cloth, have been arriving in Fort Portal, Tooro's capital, this week to pay their respects to the body of the late king and to attend the burial. REUTERS