King Oyo, once world's youngest monarch, to be buried in western Uganda

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King Oyo’s casket, draped in the blue-and-yellow Tooro flag, was driven from ‌the ⁠royal palace to St. John’s Cathedral in the western city of Fort Portal for ⁠a ceremony. File | Photo Credit: Reuters

Uganda's Tooro Kingdom prepared ‌on Saturday (September 12, 2026) to bury its late king, Oyo Nyimba, long the world's youngest monarch, ​following days of a bitter succession battle within the royal family.

Royal guards clad in ⁠orange tunics and beating wooden sticks led the hearse carrying Mr. Oyo's casket in a solemn procession through the streets of the kingdom's capital, Fort Portal.

King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV made global headlines in 1995 when he took the throne ‌at age 3. Images of the toddler king donning a crown and royal robes sparked curiosity and adoration around the world.

He died last month at 34 in the United States, ‌where he was receiving treatment for cancer.

File picture of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Irugu Rukidi IV sitting on a royal stool at his palace in Fort Portal, southwest of Ugandan capital Kampala | Photo Credit: Reuters

His casket, draped in the blue-and-yellow Tooro flag, was driven from ‌the ⁠royal palace to St. John's Cathedral in the western city of Fort Portal for ⁠a ceremony before hundreds of mourners, including senior Ugandan government officials.

Uganda is led by an elected head of state but retains several kingdoms that pre-date the British colonial era and are seen as bulwarks of traditional identity and heritage.

After ​the cathedral service, Mr. Oyo will be buried ‌at the site of the royal tombs. The Omusuna, the traditional chief priest charged with burying Tooro's monarchs, will guide the incoming king in the custom of casting nine coffee berries into the grave.

Whether the new king would be in place to perform that mandatory rite had been in doubt until late ‌on Friday (September 11, 2026).

A committee consisting of members of the royal clan announced on Wednesday (September 9, 2026) that it had ​chosen Mr. Oyo's cousin, Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a news anchor and editor at state broadcaster UBC, as king.

Queen mother of Tooro Kingdom Best Kemigisa and mother to King Oyo reacts near the flag draped coffin with the body of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV | Photo Credit: Reuters

But Mr. Oyo's immediate family said his hitherto unknown son should succeed him, as called ⁠for in the late king's will. Mr. Oyo never married and was not known to have any children until the kingdom's prime minister said he had a son in the August 27 statement announcing his death.