Fort Portal, Uganda | URN | There was a standoff lasting more than two hours at the Karambi Royal Burial Grounds in Fort Portal on Saturday as the Tooro Kingdom prepared to bury Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV.
The standoff followed a disagreement over who could participate in the king’s final interment rituals, with sources saying Queen Mother Best Kemigisa initially refused to allow her son to be buried.
Omukama Oyo who died on August 27 from the United States where he had been receiving treatment, was on Saturday mourned at a funeral service at St John’s Cathedral in Fort Portal before his body was taken to the Karambi Royal Tombs for final interment.
The general public was barred from accessing the section of the royal tombs where the king’s grave is located and watched the proceedings from a distance.
A member of the Babiito royal clan who was present at the burial grounds told URN on condition of anonymity that the standoff arose after Kemigisa wanted to enter the structure housing her son’s grave ( Iziba) to participate in the final burial rituals.
The source said this was opposed on grounds of Tooro cultural norms which restrict women from participating in the interment of a king.
According to the source only a few selected ritualists led by the chief priest (Omusuuna) are allowed into the grave area to perform the traditional rites before the king is interred.
Among the rituals is the dropping of nine coffee beans into the grave.
The ritual is traditionally performed by the person who is to become the next king and in the absence of the successor, the Musuuga (head of the Babiito royal clan) is expected to perform the rite.
The source said the standoff was eventually resolved after President Yoweri Museveni reportedly intervened through Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa and Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development Henry Tumukunde who engaged Kemigisa to allow the burial to proceed.
URN could not independently verify the reported intervention.
The burial eventually proceeded although by press time it wasn’t clear who performed the ritual of dropping the nine coffee beans into the grave.
However Prince Edward Rukidi Kijjanangoma who was announced on Wednesday after a selection process by a 21-member committee of the Babiito royal clan to succeed Oyo was seen at the burial grounds.
King Oyo was accorded a state funeral and was given a seven-gun salute at the burial grounds.
Omukama Oyo was buried on the day the kingdom would have celebrated his 31st coronation anniversary.
He ascended onto the throne at the age of three on September 12 1995 after the death of his father Omukama Patrick Mathew David Kaboyo Olimi III.
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