”King Oyo Left No Heir, He Had No Child”-Tooro Chief Prince Kamurasi Bangs Table

Tooro Chief Prince Charles Kamurasi Akiiki, the Omusuuga and head of the Babiito royal clan, has rejected claims that the late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV left behind a child who could inherit the Tooro throne.

Kamurasi said the Royal Family had never been informed of the existence of such an heir, directly contradicting statements made by Tooro Kingdom Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki and President Yoweri Museveni.

“The King had no child. I don’t know about it because we have never been told that,” Kamurasi said.

Rwomiire announced King Oyo’s death on August 27, 2026, and said the monarch had left behind a young prince who would be recognised as his heir. The Prime Minister said the identity of the child would be revealed at the appropriate time in accordance with Tooro customs.

Museveni later appeared to support the account. On August 29, he said Queen Mother Best Kemigisa had informed him during a telephone conversation that King Oyo had left behind a young boy who was his heir.

However, Kamurasi has questioned the source of the information and challenged the Prime Minister’s authority to announce an heir to the Tooro throne.

“I heard the Prime Minister, while announcing Oyo’s death, saying he had left an heir. I don’t know where he got that information from,” Kamurasi said.

“Moreover, he has no right or power to make such an announcement because he is not a member of the Royal Family,” he added.

The conflicting accounts have created uncertainty as Tooro Kingdom begins the cultural process of determining King Oyo’s successor.

Succession Process

Asked about the process of choosing the next king, Kamurasi said the Babiito clan would return to the lineage of Omukama Rukidi III as it considers possible successors.

“What will happen now is that we shall go back to the Rukidi lineage, and those issues have to be sorted out by the clan,” he said.

Omukama Rukidi III, King Oyo’s grandfather, reigned over Tooro from 1921 until 1965.

The Omusuuga occupies a central position during a vacancy on the Tooro throne. As head of the Babiito, the kingdom’s ruling royal clan, Kamurasi is overseeing the cultural processes that follow the death of a king.

These processes include funeral rites, burial preparations and the identification and installation of a successor.

A statement from the Omusuuga’s office said all kingdom bodies involved in the funeral and succession processes are expected to operate under his authority.

Kamurasi is now leading a 21-member committee of Babiito elders tasked with handling the succession process.

The committee is expected to identify the successor, communicate the decision to relevant stakeholders and oversee the cultural rituals and ceremonies required for the installation of the new king.

The Babiito maintain that succession to the Tooro throne is fundamentally a cultural matter that falls under the authority of the Omusuuga and the royal clan.

For now, the conflicting claims over whether King Oyo left an heir have not resolved the question of who will succeed him. The final decision is expected to emerge from the succession process being led by the Babiito clan.

King Oyo died in the United States on August 27, 2026, at the age of 34. He had been on the Tooro throne since 1995, when he became king at the age of three following the death of his father.