Journalist crowned king in Uganda after bitter succession dispute and secret son mystery

A journalist with decades of broadcast experience has been crowned king of Uganda’s Tooro kingdom one month after the death of its late monarch.

Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma was formally proclaimed the new leader of the East African kingdom in a ceremony seeped in tradition on Tuesday.

A bitter succession dispute broke out in the weeks after the death of King Oyo IV, who ascended the throne when he was just three years old in 1995, becoming the world’s youngest reigning monarch.

King Oyo died in the US in late August after a secret battle with cancer. He was 34.

Following his passing, close relatives said Oyo had left a young son and a will with instructions that the child should be next on the throne of the hereditary monarchy.

But the son has not been revealed and officials from the kingdom have now cast doubt over whether he exists at all.

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The new leader was chosen by a committee of 21 Babiito clan members and later named as King Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma Nyabongo I, the BBC reports.

The Tooro kingdom, in western Uganda, is one of several traditional kingdoms in the African nation that have significant cultural influence despite not having political power. The country is governed by an elected president and parliament.

The late king’s mother Queen Best Kemigisa described the coronation of Kijanangoma as the “announcement of a second king”.

“As a mother, that was extraordinarily painful,” adding that the celebrations had taken place “only metres from where my son’s body lay”.

She maintains Oyo’s son, and rightful successor, is in Texas but can’t return to Uganda amid the "tense and polarised succession dispute".

“No child should be placed in circumstances where returning to his father’s homeland could mean being drawn into hostility and conflict,” Kemigisa said in a post on X.

The new king, however, is being embraced by those within the Tooro kingdom.

King Kijanangoma and Oyo are cousins and the new monarch hails from the Babiito clan, specifically the lineage of King George David Matthew Kamurasi Rukidi III, giving his reign legitimacy.

He is also well-known within the kingdom due to his two-decade career in the media including with the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation. He said he would use his contacts during his 21 years as a journalist “to get good things for our people”.

Soon after his coronation, Kijanangoma promised his subjects that the royal palace would be open to the people.

“I ask you for one thing − they have given me this title as king but I cannot work alone, I have to work with you,” he said.