Queen Mother Best Kemigisa has broken her silence over the explosive succession crisis engulfing Tooro Kingdom, accusing sections of the Babiito royal clan of rushing to install a new king while her son, the late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, was still lying in his coffin.
In an extraordinary and deeply emotional statement issued on September 10, 2026, just two days before King Oyo’s scheduled burial, Kemigisa claims that the late king’s will had already been read before senior members of the royal family and government and had “clearly set out the order of succession to the Tooro throne.”
She says an agreement was subsequently reached to meet the following day under the chairmanship of retired Maj Gen Henry Tumukunde, who represented President Yoweri Museveni.
But, according to the Queen Mother, that agreement was abruptly overtaken by a rival succession announcement.
“But that same evening, while my son’s body was still lying next to us, these select clan members held a press conference and declared their own King in disregard of the Will and the agreement with the minister,” she says.
The statement is the strongest intervention yet from Oyo’s mother and represents a dramatic escalation of the succession dispute that has emerged following the death of the 34-year-old monarch on August 27.
King Oyo, who became king at just three years old in 1995, died in the United States while undergoing cancer treatment. His body was returned to Uganda on September 4 and is due to be buried at the royal tombs in Fort Portal on September 12.
But instead of preparing for a united royal farewell, the kingdom is now facing an open confrontation over who should inherit the throne.
‘We are under house arrest’
Perhaps the most explosive allegation in Kemigisa’s statement concerns the security situation at the royal palace.
The Queen Mother claims that three days before her son’s burial, Gen Kayanja Muhanga came to the palace and removed the royal guards without notice.
She says troops were subsequently deployed around the palace.
“They took the Musuuga away to a location we were not told,” she states.
Kemigisa says the security deployment has effectively confined the royal family.
“And now, with the security deployment around the Palace, we cannot leave or receive people freely. We are under house arrest.”
She directly appeals to Gen Muhanga, the UPDF leadership and President Museveni to intervene.
“I appeal to Gen. Kayanja Muhanga, UPDF leadership, and the president to allow our family the freedom and dignity to mourn and bury King Oyo in peace.”
The allegation places Uganda’s security establishment directly in the middle of what had initially been presented as an internal cultural succession process.
It also raises fresh questions about why security forces were deployed around the palace at such a sensitive moment.
Queen Mother reveals painful history of royal succession battles
Kemigisa’s statement is not merely a protest against the current succession process.
It is also a deeply personal account of a woman who says she has already lived through one bitter fight over the Tooro throne.
She recalls that she was only 26 years old when her husband died.
At the time, she was in the United Kingdom receiving treatment for their young daughter, Cecilia.
Oyo was only two years old.
When she returned home to bury her husband, Omukama Patrick, Kemigisa says the family was immediately forced into another battle — this time over whether her three-year-old son had the right to become king.
According to her account, some members of the Babiito clan argued that Oyo was too young to become king.
They also claimed that his father had left no will naming him as successor and argued that his uncle should therefore take the throne in accordance with the wishes of the late Omukama Rukidi.
The matter eventually went to court.
“We went to court, and my King Oyo prevailed,” Kemigisa says.
That history makes the current dispute particularly painful.
Thirty-one years after fighting to protect her son’s claim to the throne, the Queen Mother now finds herself confronting another succession battle — this time after the death of the very son whose kingship she fought to defend.
‘My son had a will’
The central bombshell in Kemigisa’s statement is her claim that Oyo left behind a clear succession plan.
She says the late king’s will was read at 4pm before representatives of both the royal family and government.
She specifically names Musuuga, Princess Ruth Komuntale, Princess Margaret Komubaizi, Father Oyo, Monsignor Father Mayombo and Maj Gen Henry Tumukunde, who she says represented the President.
According to Kemigisa, the will did not leave the succession question open.
“The Will clearly set out the order of succession to the Tooro throne,” she says.
She says those present agreed to meet the following day under Gen Tumukunde’s chairmanship.
But before that meeting could take place, she says, members of the clan went public with a completely different decision.
The significance of that allegation cannot be understated.
It means that, according to the Queen Mother, the current succession controversy is not simply about competing interpretations of custom.
She is alleging that there was an agreed process involving government and the royal family — and that it was subsequently disregarded.
‘They jubilated while my son was still in his coffin’
Kemigisa’s anger is particularly directed at the timing of the rival declaration.
She says the clan members could have announced their decision at another time.
Instead, she says, they did it while Oyo’s body was still lying beside the grieving family.
“They could have done this anywhere else. Instead, they chose to jubilate while my son was still lying in his casket next to them.”
For a mother who has just lost her only son, the words reveal the depth of the personal pain behind the political and cultural dispute.
“My daughter is devastated. Our family is grieving,” she says.
Kemigisa’s statement also explains why she is appealing for the succession battle to be temporarily put aside.
“I also appeal to those fighting over the throne: please, there will be time for all of that. Let us grieve and bury my son King Oyo.”
That plea comes as Tooro’s royal succession process has become increasingly complicated.
The succession dispute has changed rapidly
Before the latest declaration, reports had emerged that a royal succession committee had selected George Desmond Kamurasi, a 36-year-old London-based football goalkeeper, as a possible successor.
Reports said Kamurasi received 15 of 18 votes cast by members of the succession committee.
But on September 9, the Tooro succession committee announced Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a journalist and cousin of the late king, as the new monarch. Reuters reported that the announcement immediately triggered opposition from Oyo’s mother and sister.
That succession controversy is taking place against an even bigger unresolved question: the identity and status of an heir reportedly left behind by King Oyo.
Before his death, Tooro Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire said the late king had left an heir and that continuity of the crown was assured.
The Prime Minister had also previously called for differences within the kingdom to be kept away from the public eye until after Oyo’s burial. Reports said the disagreements partly centred on the identity of the monarch’s heir.
Kemigisa’s latest statement now provides the most direct account yet from Oyo’s immediate family.
‘He was a good son. He was a good King.’
Despite the raging succession battle, the Queen Mother ends her statement not with politics but with a mother’s farewell.
She describes Oyo as a good son and a good king who loved Tooro and served its people for 31 years.
“Most importantly, he served God,” she says.
“He has gone to be with the Lord.”
Her final appeal is therefore not about who should win the throne.
It is about allowing her son to be buried.
“Please allow us to send him home with the dignity and respect he deserves.”
That appeal now hangs over what should have been a solemn farewell to one of Uganda’s most recognisable traditional leaders.
King Oyo’s 31-year reign began when he was a toddler and continued until his death at 34. The Uganda Media Centre has described his reign as one marked by faith, humility and service, while noting that he became a symbol of Tooro from the moment he was crowned as a three-year-old.
But his death has exposed unresolved tensions inside the kingdom.
The Queen Mother’s statement has now put those tensions into stark public view.
A mother wants to bury her son. A kingdom is fighting over his crown.
That is the painful contradiction at the heart of Tooro’s latest crisis.
As Kemigisa mourns the son she raised from a three-year-old king into a monarch who ruled for 31 years, rival forces are already battling over who should occupy his throne.
And according to the Queen Mother, the most important document in that battle — King Oyo’s alleged will — has already been read.
Her demand is simple: stop the succession fight, allow the family to mourn, and bury King Oyo with dignity.
Whether the kingdom will heed that plea before Saturday’s burial remains the biggest question hanging over Tooro.
