Fort Portal, Uganda | URN | In the middle of 2014, Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV of Tooro Kingdom announced that he would fast in protest against what he described as the division of his ancestral territory.
The trigger was the formal recognition of two new cultural institutions of Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu in Kasese and Obudhingiya Bwa Bwamba in Bundibugyo. Both areas had historically fallen under Tooro before the abolition of kingdoms in 1967.
President Museveni, who had been one of King Oyo’s official guardians since 1995, attended the installation of Bamba King Maj. Martin Kamya, a move King Oyo viewed as a desecration of his kingdom. To the king and many of his subjects, the central government’s decision amounted to carving up Tooro’s traditional boundaries.
Kingdom officials made preparations for an intentional, clear repsonse. Then Premier Dr Stephen Kaliba stated that King Oyo would fast to express displeasure at the creation of the new institutions without consultation and over the long delay in returning kingdom assets seized decades earlier.
In June 2014 the plan was announced. A month later, on 14 July, the king formally began a six-day fast at Karuziika Palace in Fort Portal. He invited his subjects and religious leaders to join him, declaring that “a king does not fast alone.”
Uganda Radio Network reported that the monarch spent his days in prayer, intercession and listening to testimonies, breaking the fast only in the evening with a simple meal shared with those who had joined him. Religious leaders from different denominations visited the palace to show support.
President Yoweri Museveni’s reaction was blunt and widely reported. Commenting on the planned fast, the President remarked that the exercise would help King Oyo lose weight and remain fit.
“If my son has decided to fast, I don’t mind, let him fast it will help him shape up and be healthy,” the president told journalists at his Rwakitura home.
The comments triggered anger in Fort Portal. Loyalists demonstrated in the streets. Police used teargas and arrested at least four people. Tooro Kingdom officials demanded an apology, arguing that the President’s words undermined the institution.
The fast ended after six days. The new cultural institutions remained in place. The demand for the return of kingdom assets continued, leading years later to a 2019 Memorandum of Understanding between King Oyo and President Museveni. Progress on the assets has been slow, with verification exercises and further discussions continuing into the 2020s.
The 2014 episode remains one of the most public moments of tension between the Tooro throne and the central government during King Oyo’s long reign.
Despite the sharp exchange that year, the personal relationship between the President and the king, rooted in Museveni’s role as guardian, endured. The fasting episode, however, is still remembered in Tooro as the moment a young monarch chose prayer and self-denial to defend what he regarded as the integrity of his kingdom’s borders.
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