The remains of the fallen Tooro monarch, Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, have arrived in the kingdom, marking the beginning of an emotional homecoming for a king whose reign spanned three decades.
The casket carrying the 34-year-old monarch was flown from Entebbe by a Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) helicopter and landed at exactly 2:05 pm on Friday at Humura Uganda Playground in Kyegegwa Town Council, Kyegegwa District.
Thousands of mourners had gathered at the playground, many standing in silence as they waited for the arrival of the remains. Members of Parliament from the Tooro region, Kingdom officials, religious leaders, political leaders and residents from across the region joined the gathering to receive the fallen monarch.
The remains had earlier been received at Entebbe International Airport by President Yoweri Museveni before being flown to Kyegegwa, the starting point of a solemn road journey through the heart of Tooro. Accompanying the remains are the Queen Mother, Best Kemigisa, Princess Ruth Komuntale, Princess Elizabeth Bagaya and other members of the royal family.
At Humura Playground, religious leaders led brief prayers before the casket was placed in a VVIP hearse for the journey to Fort Portal City, allowing thousands of the Omukama’s subjects along the route an opportunity to pay their final respects.
The procession is expected to travel through Kyaka County in Kyegegwa District, Mwenge in Kyenjojo District, Burahya in Kabarole District and onward to Fort Portal City. For many residents, the journey is more than a ceremonial procession but a final passage through the kingdom that Omukama Oyo symbolically represented from childhood, allowing his subjects to accompany their king home one last time.
At Karuzika Palace, the remains will be received by the head of the royal Babiito clan, Musuuga Charles Kamurasi, the chief priest, members of the royal clan and other kingdom officials. Thousands of mourners have already gathered at the palace, awaiting the arrival of the casket.
For some, the physical sight of the coffin has brought home the reality of a demise that had remained difficult to comprehend. Anna Mugisa, a resident of Kyegegwa, said she struggled to believe that the Omukama had died until she saw the casket carrying his remains.
James Mwirumubi, another resident, said the King’s demise had come at a particularly poignant moment, when he had begun engaging more actively with his subjects and championing development initiatives across the kingdom.
The procession through Tooro also carries an unusual historical significance. Available accounts indicate that the last time the remains of a Tooro king were similarly transported through the kingdom was in December 1928, when Omukama Kasagama Kyebambe IV died.
Kasagama had travelled from his palace in Fort Portal to a smaller royal residence in Mwenge for the Christmas break, where he was expecting to receive a special guest and friend, Kabaka Daudi Chwa II of Buganda. But Kasagama died suddenly while in Mwenge. His remains were consequently transported from Mwenge back to Fort Portal.
Nearly a century later, Tooro is witnessing another royal journey of mourning. The procession carrying the remains of Omukama Oyo from Kyegegwa through Mwenge and Burahya to Fort Portal evokes that distant chapter in the kingdom’s history, when the death of a monarch brought the royal household and subjects together in grief.
But there is also a profound difference. Kasagama’s death occurred in an era when royal authority and movement were governed by a very different political and social order. The journey of Oyo’s remains is taking place before a vast modern audience, with thousands of subjects lining roads, communities organising vigils and an entire kingdom watching the final return of a monarch who became king as a child.
Oyo ascended the Tooro throne in 1995, following the death of his father, Omukama Patrick Matthew Kaboyo Olimi III. He was only three years old at the time, making him one of the world’s youngest reigning monarchs. For more than three decades, his name became inseparable from Tooro’s modern history, and his death now marks the end of a remarkable chapter in the kingdom’s story.
As the hearse makes its way towards Fort Portal, passing through communities that have known Oyo as their King, the journey is becoming both a farewell and a historical moment: a king returning to the land over which he reigned, carried home by the people whose lives and memories became part of his long reign-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
