KAMPALA—Tooro Kingdom, nestled in the highly tourist-attractive, snow-capped Rwenzoris, famously known as the “Mountain of the Moon,” a few weeks ago lost the world’s youngest reigning monarch, Omukama Rukirabasaija Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, to brain cancer that underwent treatment in Uganda, Nairobi, two German hospitals and at California’s Dallas Medical Center, and later at Baylor and White Hospital in Dallas, Texas, USA—where he died.
This was after initially being treated in Kampala, where the aggressively spreading ailment wasn’t fully diagnosed, but only in Nairobi, where he was referred from Uganda for a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan at the more advanced Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, which clearly identified the cause of the disturbing ailment. A PET machine is a medical imaging scan that shows how one’s body is working/functioning, not what it just looks like. Unlike X-ray or CT, which show body structure, PET shows functions/metabolism. It finds cancer tumours and sees if cancer has spread in the body, among other uses.
The sickness, mired in a lot of controversy and secrecy, as the young king was first reported to be outside Uganda on studies, yet he was admitted in Nairobi, Germany, then to US hospitals, as it later turned out that he was actually admitted for a very serious, fatal ailment—a brain cancer of the angiosarcoma type. Kingdom Prime Minister Clovis Akiiki later revealed the king had asked officials not to disclose the seriousness of his illness, as he believed he would pull through.
Fort Portal City’s Government Deputy Resident City Commissioner, Mr. Henry Kitambula, disclosed that the days that followed the king’s death and confirmation, throughout the nine-day mourning and post-burial period, had been a tough time of 24-hour alertness over possible terror attacks by the DR Congo-based Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Ebola infection amid the large gathering of mourners. ADF rebels and the Ebola viral disease both originate from Uganda’s western neighbour, the DR Congo, which shares the longest but poorly policed borderline.
The world’s youngest monarch, who died at 34, replaced his father, the late Omukama Patrick Matthew Olimi Kaboyo, in 1995; [Patrick] had died in 1993, when he retired as Uganda’s Ambassador to Cuba. He too succumbed to cancer.
The late King Oyo originally ascended the throne at just three years of age—but was officially crowned after his 18th birthday. He was named by the Guinness World Records list as the world’s youngest reigning monarch at the time.
While Uganda is governed by a parliament comprising elected officials—with its five traditional sub-national kingdoms holding no political power—their monarchs retain strong cultural influence across the country. The five sub-national kingdoms are Buganda, Bunyoro, Tooro, Ankole and Busoga.
The young King Oyo was buried on September 12, 2026, when he would have marked the 31st anniversary of his reign/coronation.
He had lain in state at his Karuziika Palace in the western tourism city of Fort Portal for a mandatory nine days of mourning, allowing thousands of members of the public to pay their respects over the period. He was then laid to rest in the Magasani at Karambi on Saturday, September 12, 2026—the anniversary of his coronation.
He had died on August 27, 2026, and the body was returned to Uganda on September 4, 2026, and its arrival marked the start of the Tooro Kingdom’s official mourning period. After the official requiem mass at St. John’s Cathedral in Fort Portal City and burial at Karambi, the royal ruling Babiito clan chose television journalist Prince Edward Kijjanangoma Nyabongo 1 as the new Omukama to replace the deceased. His succession was announced by the clan Chairman, Omusuuga Charles Kamurasi, on September 9, 2026, to the royal clan council and the entire kingdom—three days before the burial of the departed cultural leader. Prince Kijjanangoma’s formal enthronement is expected to follow traditional Tooro customs.
The late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV is celebrated as a committed lover of the environment, youth economic ‘empowerer’/promoter, a mountain climber and a rancher, among other interests.
Delegations of traditional/cultural leaders from South Sudan, Kenya and Lesotho attended his burial. By coincidence, as Prince Edward Kijjanangoma settles on the throne, he lost his elder brother, Prince David Kijjanangoma, on September 15, also to cancer at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala.
Fort Portal City’s Government Deputy Resident City Commissioner, Mr. Henry Kitambula, disclosed that the day the king’s death was confirmed and officially announced, throughout the nine-day mourning and post-burial period, it was a tough time of 24-hour alertness over possible terror attacks by the DR Congo-based Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Ebola infection amid the large gathering of mourners. ADF rebels and the Ebola viral disease both originate from Uganda’s western neighbour, the DR Congo, which shares the longest but poorly policed borderline.
Editor’s Note: ASHENEWS confirms that, historically and with an important qualification, Omukama Rukirabasaija Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV became the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he succeeded his father as king of Uganda’s Tooro Kingdom at the age of three in 1995. Guinness World Records still recognised him as the youngest reigning monarch in its 2025 edition.
