A month after King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV died, a sample of about 1,000 posts on X suggests that online opinion leans toward his family's claim to the throne, even as the clan elders' chosen successor heads for his coronation on 29 September. Others in the sample counter that the crisis is largely a social media affair and that the mood in Tooro itself is different.
- Omukama
- King of Tooro
- Omusuuga
- Head of the Babiito royal clan, who presents the rightful prince
- Babiito
- The royal clan from which kings are drawn
- Karuziika
- The royal palace in Fort Portal
- Empango
- The coronation and its anniversary
Terms used in this article
A divided audience
Of the 333 accounts in the sample that took a clear position, about 60% sided with the late king's immediate family and 40% with the Babiito clan elders led by the Omusuuga, Charles Kamurasi. The family's camp gathers around Queen Mother Best Kemigisa and the claimed heir, often called "Baby Oyo." Princess Ruth Komuntale features less often than her mother.
The balance shifted as the coronation approached. Before 21 September the two views were more evenly balanced, with about 55% of opinionated posts supporting the family. By 26 September, after the Queen Mother's public statement and news of a gift to the Omusuuga, the family's share had risen to about two thirds of opinionated posts.
A recurring counter-narrative holds that the crisis lives mostly on social media and that things are different on the ground. Supporters of the elders describe the opposition as a Kampala and TikTok phenomenon, driven by people who have never set foot in Tooro, and point to clan contributions of cash and cattle, coronation preparations in Fort Portal and crowds greeting the new king as the better measure of feeling in the kingdom. The family's supporters dispute this with images of quiet streets and comparisons with the crowds that received King Oyo's body. The online narrative described here may therefore differ from opinion among Batooro on the ground.
The question of an heir
The claim that King Oyo left a son dominates the conversation. A third of all posts mention the son, an heir or the late king's will, and posts accepting the claim are more than twice as common as those doubting it.
Believers take the Queen Mother at her word. Her 22 September statement, as reported, affirms that King Oyo left a child. The further details, that he is in Texas and was kept away because of the tensions surrounding the succession, come from posts summarising that statement and remain unconfirmed. "A king is born, not elected" has become their slogan, and some are organising to flood social media with images of King Oyo on coronation day. A small number speak of forming a separate kingdom.
The Omusuuga's position rests on his customary role. As head of the Babiito royal clan, he is the person to whom a king's child is first made known and who presents the rightful prince to the kingdom. In his public remarks he said that when King Oyo was born while his father was serving as an ambassador abroad, the father asked him to go and see the child and report back, and that a child born abroad and brought forward without his knowledge cannot be accepted. His account, repeated by his supporters online, is that he had no knowledge of the child and asked for the child to be presented, along with a photograph, the mother's family and a birth certificate, and that none of these was produced. The Queen Mother's side, as summarised online, is that the child was abroad and was kept away because of those tensions.
Doubters build on that gap. They note that no name, photograph or birth record was put before the clan meeting that chose the new king, and that the child did not attend his father's burial. Between the two camps sits a shared demand to present the child and settle his identity through proper cultural and legal channels. The Omusuuga's refusal still drew criticism from users who felt a king's son should not be turned away on the grounds of where he was born, and claims online that the child's mother is not from Tooro remain unconfirmed.
Voices from the late king's circle
Some of the strongest statements for the heir come from people who were close to King Oyo, including the Omusuuga's own sons. On 10 September Prince Patrick Mpuuga, a friend of the late king, and Prince Solomon Nyaika publicly broke with their father. Prince Mpuuga said the king's 2022 will "supersedes any Will that existed in the past" and that King Oyo had asked him to take on the role of Musuuga himself. Prince Nyaika put it more simply, saying the king "has left the Will, his son, and the succession system." Both said they wanted peace and a resolution under the Constitution. A different prince, Mpuuga Kaboyo, described as King Oyo's elder brother, took the opposite view and praised the Omusuuga's work.
Douglas Kawamara, one of the late king's confidants, wrote that King Oyo "left behind a young boy heir who, according to the traditions and established institutions of the kingdom, remains part of the royal succession." Ron Kawamara's widely shared tribute to the Queen Mother on 22 September spoke of grief and legacy and stopped short of the succession question.
Omugurusi Apuuli, who writes as one of those close to the king, answered the Omusuuga directly. His argument is that the Omusuuga not knowing of the child does not show the child does not exist, that a king's private life need not be disclosed to the clan for validation, and that the better question is why the Omusuuga was not told. He urged the Omusuuga to leave the king's private life to those who witnessed it, and in a separate post thanked the Queen Mother and Princess Ruth and repeated that kings are born, not elected.
The Prime Minister, Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire, travelled furthest. When he announced the king's death on 27 August, he said King Oyo had left a prince to succeed him, whose identity would be revealed later in line with custom. On 31 August the Omusuuga rejected this, saying he had never been told of a child and that the Prime Minister, not being a member of the royal family, had no power to make such an announcement. On 3 September he appealed for restraint, explaining that the public had been told the king was abroad studying and later that he was well because the king had asked for his illness to be kept private, and deferred other questions until after the burial. In a later statement headed "Enough is enough," he called on Batooro to stop feeding social media divisions, declared that there is "only one team: Team Tooro," and asked them to rally behind the new king for the 29 September coronation.
A broadcaster on the throne
Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, who will reign as Nyabongo I, meets a more hostile reception online than a supportive one. His defenders describe a newsroom professional, said by supporters to be 56, who never sought the crown and who, they say, accepted it after another candidate declined. They cite the Tooro Supreme Council's endorsement and ask critics to give him time.
His critics call him imposed or "elected," claim that his branch of the family opposed King Oyo from 1995, and mock his line that "God chose me." A Shs 925 million coronation appeal drew unfavourable comparison with the late king, whom users say never asked his subjects for money.
His years at UBC come up in about two dozen posts, mostly as material for jokes about a vacant anchor's chair or a "journalist king." A smaller thread questions his earlier work with Rwandan television under another name, a claim the posts do not substantiate. The Babiito clan's spokesman confirmed that his wife, Rebecca Amoding, who comes from outside Tooro, will hold the title of queen and that their children are excluded from succession, a ruling that drew its own debate. By 27 September the new king had performed the final burial rite at Karambi Royal Tombs, sealing King Oyo's grave, a step the clan spokesman presented as part of the customary transition.
Beyond the throne
The role of the state runs through roughly a hundred posts. Users cite the Chief of Defence Forces declaring Nyabongo I king and donating Shs 100 million, the President's plans to attend as chief guest, the Attorney General's clearance of the coronation, and a prominent commentator's claim that soldiers had to move the late king's body during the burial standoff, which no official source in the sample confirms. Critics read these as political capture of a cultural institution, while the elders' supporters reply that the kingdom has long depended on government support.
A white Land Cruiser presented to the Omusuuga on 26 September became a lightning rod. News outlets confirmed the gift, and one valued the car at Shs 180 million. The Shs 500 million figure that also circulated refers to a wider appreciation fund for the Omusuuga proposed in mid-September, reported to set aside Shs 200 million for a vehicle and Shs 300 million for welfare, although some posts presented it as the price of the car. Most users who mentioned it called it a reward or a bribe, with the phrase "sold the kingdom for a car" recurring, while organisers described it as a thank-you from Tooro's clans. His supporters push back on the bribery charge by recalling that when Prince David Kijanangoma tried to unseat King Oyo, it was the Omusuuga who stopped him.
The palace itself became contested ground. On 15 September the Omusuuga told the Tooro Supreme Council that the keys to Karuziika were missing, and no one was named as responsible. A video of items being moved out circulated, and several posts attributed this to the Queen Mother and joked about an "empty palace." Kingdom officials gave a different account. The Assistant Musuuga described the removal of the late king's belongings, furniture and utensils as okweeza, the traditional cleansing of the palace after a king's death, with the items kept elsewhere while the residence is refurbished for the new reign. Officials insisted the activity was part of the traditional preparations for the coronation and did not comment on the claims against the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother's King Oyo Memorial Foundation, with plans for a museum, stadium and hospital, is read by some as a tribute and by others as a rival centre of influence. A minority revived older, unsubstantiated complaints about the handling of kingdom land and bursaries during the regency.
The title of Queen Mother became a flashpoint of its own on 27 September, when the Omusuuga welcomed the new king's mother, Yusta Asiimwe Kijanangoma, to Karuziika in that role. Many users replied that Tooro has only one Queen Mother, Best Kemigisa, arguing that the title belongs to a woman who was both the wife and the mother of a king. Others welcomed the new Queen Mother warmly, and a few posts voiced dismay at the prospect of the new king's wife, Rebecca Amoding, taking a place once held by Best Kemigisa.
Comparing the arguments
The two camps rarely answer each other directly. Each argues from a different source of authority, the family from the late king's wishes and blood, the elders from clan procedure and institutional continuity.
| Issue | The late king's family and supporters | The clan elders and supporters |
|---|---|---|
| Basis of succession | "A king is born, not elected"; the throne passes to the late king's son | The Babiito clan selects from the royal lineage; succession has not always gone father to son |
| The heir | A son exists in Texas and was kept away for his safety | No child has been presented, named or identified; he did not attend the burial |
| The will | King Oyo left a will naming his successor, and setting it aside endangers every future reign | The will's contents and validity were never established; the clan acted within its customary role |
| The new king | Imposed and politically backed, from a family branch that opposed Oyo since 1995 | Reluctant, dutiful and endorsed by the Tooro Supreme Council |
| Role of the state | Army and government involvement amounts to political capture | Government support is normal; the Attorney General cleared the coronation and the culture minister said the dispute was settled under the law |
| The Omusuuga's car | A reward or bribe for rejecting the heir | A thank-you from Tooro's clans for holding the kingdom together |
| Who speaks for Tooro | Public affection for King Oyo, visible across Uganda and online | Clans and residents in Fort Portal, not Kampala or TikTok users |
| The Queen Mother | A grieving mother protecting her grandchild and her son's legacy | The source of three decades of disputes, accused online of emptying the palace |
Analysis
Read as a set of perspectives, the posts show the family's camp holding the emotional ground and the larger online audience. Its case rests on continuity with a king many Ugandans grew up with, and on the principle of hereditary succession. Its weakness is evidential. Every version of the argument depends on a child who has not been presented, and the longer that remains so, the more supporters drift toward the elders' position. Several posts record exactly that shift. Voices from King Oyo's own circle offer the family's strongest answer to the evidence argument, holding that the Omusuuga's lack of knowledge proves nothing about the child and that the late king's will should outrank the clan's process. The Omusuuga's own sons taking that side gives the argument weight the online crowd alone could not.
The elders' camp holds the procedural ground. It has the clan's decision, the Supreme Council's endorsement and the Attorney General's clearance, and it can point to Tooro's own history of contested and non-linear successions. The Omusuuga's supporters strengthen this position by framing his refusal as a request for evidence that went unanswered. In their account he sought the child, a photograph, the mother's family and a birth certificate, and none was produced. The new king's completion of the final burial rite at Karambi Royal Tombs adds customary weight, marking each ritual step of the transition as done. Supporters also cast the Omusuuga as a long-standing protector of King Oyo, citing his role in stopping an earlier attempt by Prince David Kijanangoma to unseat him. Its weakness is legitimacy. The speed of the transition, the visible backing of senior state figures and the car gift give critics a ready account of a process bought and steered from outside, and the Omusuuga's public rejection of the claimed son hands them further material, even though his stated reason is that the child was never presented to him.
The debate also reveals a disagreement about where authority in a cultural institution comes from. One side treats the kingdom as belonging to its people and measures legitimacy by popular affection. The other treats it as belonging to the royal clan and measures legitimacy by adherence to custom. Online engagement favours the first view, while the institutions that will crown the king on 29 September operate on the second.
By the eve of the coronation the dispute had moved from the throne to the titles around it. The insistence that Best Kemigisa remains the only Queen Mother, and the unease about Rebecca Amoding's place, show supporters of the late king's family defending the standing of his household even as the coronation goes ahead. For part of the family's camp, the contest is widening from who holds the crown to how King Oyo's line and legacy are placed within the kingdom's symbolic order.
The Prime Minister first announced that the king had left a prince and later called on Batooro to rally behind the new king under the banner of "Team Tooro," a shift that shows the late king's own administration consolidating around the transition. The gap between online opinion and events on the ground is likely to persist. Unless the claimed heir is presented, the family's support will probably settle into commemoration of King Oyo's legacy rather than a sustained challenge to the new reign.