AN APPEAL FOR PEACE AND UNITY IN TOORO
People of Tooro, our leaders, friends of Tooro and fellow Ugandans,
We are living through one of the most painful and delicate moments in the history of our Kingdom.
His Majesty Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV has passed away, and even before we have laid our King to rest, sharply differing positions have emerged regarding succession to the Crown of Tooro.
On one hand, a group has announced a new King. On the other, there is a Will left by the late Omukama containing his expressed wishes regarding succession.
These are serious matters that must ultimately be addressed. But as Batooro, we must ask whether this is the right moment, and whether the manner in which this is unfolding honours the King whose body we have not yet laid to rest.
Whatever our positions or interpretations of Tooro’s customs and institutions, there must remain a minimum standard of moral decency.
Let us first bury our King.
The Crown of Tooro has existed for generations and will endure long after all of us. Nothing is so urgent that we must sacrifice the dignity of His Majesty’s final journey, the grief of the Royal Family, the unity of our people or the peace of our Kingdom to settle it now.
There will be time to examine the Will, to hear those advancing a different position, and to consider our customs, the applicable law and the proper institutions through which succession should be determined. That process should take place calmly and credibly, not through competing announcements, confrontation, or attempts to establish facts on the ground while our King still awaits burial.
I therefore appeal to everyone involved, regardless of the position they support, to exercise restraint. Tooro is bigger than any one of us, and the Crown is too important to become the prize in a contest conducted in the middle of our mourning.
I also respectfully appeal to the Government of Uganda to provide appropriate guidance and support to ensure that peace, order and sanity prevail during this sensitive period.
This is not a request for Government to choose a King for Tooro. It is an appeal to help protect the conditions within which the relevant cultural, legal and institutional processes can take place peacefully, fairly and without intimidation or disorder. Where necessary, respected elders, cultural leaders and other credible persons should also help guide an orderly way forward.
My appeal is simple: lower the temperature.
We can disagree without destroying one another. We can defend our positions without insensitive language. We can seek the truth without abandoning our culture, dignity and humanity.
History will remember not only how the succession question was resolved, but also how we behaved when our King died.
Let it record that, in a moment of grief and disagreement, the people of Tooro chose restraint, our leaders chose wisdom over confrontation, and we gave His Majesty the dignity of resting in peace before turning to the future of his Crown.
For now, let us mourn together. Let us bury our King with honour. Then, with dignity, fairness and respect, let the truth and the proper process guide what comes next.
In whatever we do, Tooro must come first.
Her speech on 9th September 2025 was a prayer for King Oyo to marry and have children. If that prayer was answered shortly thereafter, shouldn’t we now be expecting King Oyo’s heir who is about three months old? 👀
I extend my sincere condolences to the people of Uganda's Tooro Kingdom on the passing of His Majesty the Omukama of Tooro, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV. Five years ago, I had the honor of meeting King Oyo and presenting him with a key to the City of Dallas as a symbol of our friendship. King Oyo impressed me as a dignified and respected leader, and he will be missed. My prayers are with his family, the Tooro people, and the nation of Uganda during this time of mourning.
I have struggled to find words for the death of my King, His Majesty King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru IV. P
I have seen him grow all his life. I watched him learn to play football and basketball, ride bikes, go to school, leave for university, graduate, and, year after year, grow into his Crown. I watched the boy become a man, and the man become a remarkable King.
We were supposed to be planning his wedding, not his funeral.
Perhaps that is what makes this so difficult to accept. None of us believed the King would die. Even His Majesty believed he was coming home. On the day he passed, we had expected him to be discharged. Only a week earlier, he was still speaking with doctors about new treatment options and participating in the daily family prayer hour. He was happy that Arsenal had started the season with a stronger squad. He was looking forward to this year’s Empaango.
He was still making plans. Still hopeful. Still living.
Oyo loved Tooro deeply. He loved Uganda. He loved his family, and he had a special closeness with our children. But above everything else, he loved God.
He was truly a servant King: humble, gentle, and remarkably close to ordinary people. No one was too small to matter to him. He knew the names of his farm workers and bodyguards, and remembered people he met along the way. The Crown never made him distant from people; it made him feel more responsible for them.
Today, our hearts are especially with the Queen Mother Akiiki. She raised a young boy carrying an extraordinary burden into a gentleman and a great King. What she gave Tooro, through him, can never truly be repaid.
His loss is immeasurable. For our family, the pain is almost impossible to describe. For Tooro, an era has ended far too soon.
But Oyo’s legacy will not die.
It will live in his young son. It will live in the people he served, in the causes he championed, in the Kingdom he loved, and in the contribution he made to Uganda. And above all, it lives with God, the King of Kings whom he loved and served.
I will remember many things about His Majesty. But I will also remember Amooti Oyo: my cousin, my friend, the boy I watched grow up, the Arsenal fan, the father, the son, the brother, and the gentleman behind the Crown.
We were not ready to say goodbye.
Rest in eternal peace, Your Majesty.
The King is dead. The Crown mourns, but the Crown stands.
Long live the King.