Secret son revelation ignites bitter succession dispute in Ugandan kingdom

Mourners including Princess Ruth Komuntale (second left) and the Queen Mother Best Kemigisa Akiiki (right) at Entebbe International airport, where they received the coffin containing the body of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV. Photograph: Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters View image in fullscreen Mourners including Princess Ruth Komuntale (second left) and the Queen Mother Best Kemigisa Akiiki (right) at Entebbe International airport, where they received the coffin containing the body of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV. Photograph: Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters Secret son revelation ignites bitter succession dispute in Ugandan kingdom Family of late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV reject committee’s choice of cousin and TV presenter as new monarch A traditional Ugandan kingdom has become engulfed in a bitter succession dispute after the family of a king who recently died rejected the selection of a television news anchor as his successor. King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, who became the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he took the throne in the kingdom of Tooro in 1995 at the age of three, died on 27 August in the US, where he was receiving cancer treatment. View image in fullscreen King Oyo Nyimba, aged 13, sits between his mother Best Kemigisha and an unidentified adviser during celebrations marking his first decade in power in Fort Portal, Uganda. Photograph: ReutersOn Wednesday, the royal clan’s succession committee announced it had chosen Oyo’s cousin Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a news anchor and editor at the public broadcaster UBC, as crown prince. However, at a press conference held later the same day, Oyo’s sister, Princess Ruth Nsemere Komuntale, said that according to her brother’s will, a son whose existence had not been publicly known until his death should succeed him. View image in fullscreen Princess Ruth Komuntale waiting to receive the body of her brother, the late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, at Entebbe International airport last week. Photograph: Hajarah Nalwadda/Getty ImagesThe kingdom’s ‌spokesperson shared a section of the document, which says: “I hereby declare and direct that if, at the date of my death, I am survived by a son lawfully recognised as my biological son, I appoint him as my heir to the throne of the kingdom of Tooro.” In a statement on Thursday, Oyo’s mother, Queen Mother Best Kemigisa Akiiki, denounced a “self-appointed group of clan members” who had selected a new king despite having had the will read to them hours earlier.