The announcement of an heir should have united Tooro. Instead, it has exposed a crack.
When King Oyo died at 34, Tooro wept as one. But within 72 hours, the tears gave way to confusion.
On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Calvin Rwomiire announced the King’s death and added one hopeful line: “His Majesty leaves behind a Prince as his heir.”
On Saturday, President Museveni comforted the nation, saying he had spoken to Queen Mother Best Kemigisa on phone and she had told him, “Oyo left a young boy heir that will be introduced at the right time.”
The country sighed with relief. The 200-year-old Babiito dynasty would continue.
Then on Sunday, the man who should know came out to say he knew nothing.
Omusuuga Charles Kamurasi Akiiki – the head of the Babiito clan, the uncle and cultural father of all Babiito royals, the only person whose committee is mandated by Tooro custom to identify a new King – said plainly: “The King had no child. The Royal Family knew nothing about the reported heir.”
And he questioned: “I don’t know where the Prime Minister got that information from. Moreover, he has no right to make such an announcement.”
In one moment, two narratives were born. Who is telling the truth? And why would the Queen Mother tell the President of Uganda before telling the head of her own royal clan?
*THIS IS NOT A NEW WRANGLE*
What looks like confusion to outsiders is a familiar pattern to those who have watched Tooro for the last 15 years.
Tooro Kingdom has always had two powers.
The first is the *Palace Administration* – the Queen Mother, Best Kemigisa, and the Prime Minister’s office she appoints. Since King Oyo was crowned at age 3, his mother has been his closest advisor, regent, and gatekeeper. This office controls the money, the land leases, the hotels, the access to State House, and the microphone.
The second is the *Babiito Clan Council* – led by Omusuuga Charles Kamurasi. They are the custodians of blood. They don’t sign cheques, but they hold the unwritten constitution of Tooro. It is they, not the Prime Minister, who must verify the child, check the mother’s clan, perform the rituals, and present the heir to the spirits of the ancestors at Karuzika. A Prime Minister is an employee. An Omusuuga is blood.
For years, these two sides have not been in total harmony. There have been court cases over kingdom land, open disagreements over who speaks for the King, and quiet complaints from clan elders that they are only called when there is a ceremony, never when there is a decision.
Oyo’s death has not created this wrangle. It has simply exposed it.
*WHY TELL THE PRESIDENT FIRST?*
In any African kingdom, you do not announce an heir to the radio before you announce him to the clan council. Custom demands secrecy, verification, and consensus within the royal house first.
So why was State House told before the Babiito?
There are two hard questions Tooro must ask itself.
*1. Was it protection?*
We all know King Oyo never had a public official marriage. If his son was born outside a formal royal wedding – perhaps to a girlfriend he truly loved but never officially married under custom – that child lives in a dangerous grey area.
Under Tooro custom, a child born outside wedlock can still be heir IF the clan accepts him and rituals are done. But acceptance is not automatic.
If the Queen Mother feared the Babiito elders might reject the boy on grounds of his mother’s identity or lack of formal marriage, her smartest move would be to get the highest protection in Uganda first – the President. Once Museveni says “there is an heir,” it becomes politically impossible for the clan to say “there is no heir.” The announcement becomes a shield for the child.
*2. Was it about the next 17 years?*
This is the question nobody wants to ask aloud.
If a 2-year-old toddler is crowned today, Tooro will have no active, adult King for the next 16 to 17 years. Who rules in that vacuum? A Regency.
And who is most likely to be Regent? The grandmother of the child – the Queen Mother herself. She has done it before, from 1995 to 2010 when Oyo was a child.
A toddler king means 17 more years of regency rule – 17 more years of the same administration controlling kingdom resources in the name of a child who cannot check them. It is an open secret that regencies in Tooro have been periods of heavy land giveaways and power struggles.
The Babiito elders, on the other hand, have said they want to “go back to the Rukidi III lineage” – meaning pick an adult prince, a brother or cousin of Oyo, who can reign NOW, while grooming the little boy as Crown Prince for the future. That would avoid a 17-year vacuum.
So this is not just about a baby. It is about who holds Tooro for the next two decades.
*WE MUST THINK BEYOND THE SURFACE*
We are being asked to celebrate quickly. But wisdom demands we pause.
If there is a prince, let the Babiito see him. In broad daylight. Let his mother’s clan be known. Let the elders do their verification, not the press.
If we truly have an heir, we must protect his mother. She is not a scandal to be hidden until “the right time.” She is the mother of a king. What are her rights? Will she be allowed to love again? Will she be forced into palace seclusion for life? We saved the throne but we must not destroy a young woman’s future to do it.
And finally, Tooro must decide: Do we want a symbol on the throne for 17 years, or a King who can speak for us today?
King Oyo was himself crowned at age 3, raised in Kampala and London, and many elders quietly felt he never got to fully absorb the depth of being a Mutooro because palace handlers raised him away from his people. If we repeat the same experiment – raising this new prince away from his mother, in a palace bubble, under regents – we will raise another king who does not know his people.
Tooro is not just a crown. It is a people.
May the Babiito committee of 21 elders, now constituted, lead us with truth. May the Queen Mother be heard, but not alone. May President Museveni help us find peace, not just continuity.
And may God give us an heir we can all see, touch, and believe in.
_For Tooro to live, truth must come before politics._
Godfrey Tinka
