Uganda names journalist as successor to world's youngest king

Succession announced amid dispute

The royal council chief of Uganda's Tooro Kingdom announced on Saturday that journalist Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma will succeed his cousin, King Oyo Rukidi IV, who died at 34 last month while receiving cancer treatment in the United States. Omujwera Musuuga Charles Kayondo Kamurasi, head of the Babiito royal clan from which Tooro kings trace their lineage, declared the election before mourners gathered at the Karambi Royal Tombs in Fort Portal for the late monarch's burial. "I wish to inform Tooro and Uganda at large that Tooro has a new king," Musuuga said.

Musuuga told the congregation that "whatever we've done is in accordance with Ugandan law, and we have put our Tooro culture and norms into consideration, let's all maintain unity and always remember our culture." Mixed reactions greeted the announcement, signaling a bitter dispute over the succession. Queen Best Kemigisa and Princess Ruth Komuntale immediately rejected the clan council's choice, insisting that King Oyo had left a will naming his previously unknown son as the rightful heir — a claim clan leaders dismissed by noting that the unmarried monarch had never formally introduced any child to the council as required by tradition.

Reign of the 'boy king'

King Oyo earned a Guinness World Record as the world's youngest reigning monarch when he was crowned at age three in 1995 following his father's death. He led the kingdom — founded more than 200 years ago as the Tooro people's 13th monarchy — through regents until assuming full duties at 18, though his authority remained largely symbolic within Uganda's republican system. His unusual status as a modern "boy king" attracted global attention, including repeated visits from former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who supported Oyo and his mother for years before his death in October 2011.

The late monarch faced a failed challenge to his rule in 2015 when his cousin Prince David Kijanangoma declared himself the rightful king, accusing Oyo of neglecting the region during his time studying at Winchester University in the United Kingdom. King Oyo was laid to rest on Saturday at the Karambi Royal Tombs in western Uganda's Fort Portal city, concluding the reign of a monarch who ascended the throne before he could read or write.