Attorney General Sam Mayanja has advised President Yoweri Museveni that the Will left by the late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV should be followed in determining his successor.
In a legal opinion dated September 12 and addressed to the President, Mayanja said the validity of the late king’s Will can only be challenged in a court of law.
“King Oyo’s Will should be followed. Its validity can only be challenged in the courts of law,” Mayanja advised.
The advice comes amid an ongoing dispute within the Tooro Kingdom over who should succeed King Oyo, with members of the royal family and a section of elders from the Babiito Clan supporting different candidates.
Mayanja also advised that the traditional ritual in which the successor throws nine coffee beans into the grave of the deceased king should be suspended until the succession dispute is resolved.
“Given the dispute surrounding succession, the ceremony of throwing beans in the grave should be suspended pending the determination of the succession question,” he said.
However, the Attorney General said there is no legal impediment to proceeding with King Oyo’s burial.
He cited the burial of the late Kaboyo as precedent, noting that the coffee-bean ritual was conducted three months after his death, following the identification of his successor.
“This is not without precedent since it was done before the burial of the late Kaboyo, where the ceremony of throwing the beans was conducted three months following his death and the burial and after the successor had been identified,” Mayanja said.
Why the legal opinion?
The legal opinion comes days after a 21-member committee led by the head of the Babiito Clan, Omusuuga Charles Kayondo Kamurasi, declared veteran journalist Prince Edward Rukidi Kiijanangoma as the new Omukama of Tooro.
The committee made the announcement on Wednesday night and later repeated it at St John’s Cathedral on Saturday, maintaining that Prince Kiijanangoma had been selected to succeed King Oyo.
The declaration, however, was rejected by members of the royal family, including Queen Mother Best Kemigisa and Princesses Ruth Komuntale and Elizabeth Bagaya.
The royal family maintains that King Oyo left a Will naming his son as his preferred successor. The document also names his cousin, Prince Komwiswa Yoweri, as the alternative heir if his son is unable to assume the throne.
“If at the time of my death I have no son able to succeed me, or if my son dies before he can assume the throne, or is otherwise unable to succeed or assume the duties and responsibilities of the throne, then my cousin, Prince Komwiswa Yoweri shall be my heir and successor to the throne as Omukama of Tooro,” the Will dated September 14, 2022, states in part.
The dispute has now placed the royal family and the clan-led succession committee at odds, with both sides relying on different interpretations of Tooro customs and succession traditions.