The cultural head of Uganda's Tooro Kingdom, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, has died at the age of 34, according to reports.
The king passed away at around 10:00 p.m. Ugandan time on Thursday, according to Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki. The reasion was not disclosed.
Statements verified that he had been in severe condition and getting cancer treatments in the United States previous to his passing, even though official sources did not specifically disclose the cause of death.
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Oyo Nyimba, a 34-year-old king, became the youngest monarch in history when he assumed the throne in 1995.
Although Uganda is a republic with an elected head of state, its kingdoms are still governed by several traditional monarchies that were established during the pre-colonial era, as reported by NBC News.
They have significant cultural and social impact, but their political authority is mainly symbolic.
The monarch of Tooro, a tiny kingdom in western Uganda close to the Democratic Republic of the Congo border, was Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV.
“It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that I announce the passing of His Majesty the Omukama of Tooro, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV,” the prime minister of the kingdom, Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki, said in a post on X late on Thursday.
On September 12, 1995, Rukidi IV was crowned at the age of three following the passing of his father, Rukirabasaija Patrick David Matthew Kaboyo Olimi III.
Just before the announcement of the king's passing, Balaam Barugahara, a minister in President Yoweri Museveni's administration, stated that the monarch was undergoing treatment in the United States.
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The prime minister declared, "This is an immeasurable loss," adding that "continuity of the Crown is assured" and that the unmarried monarch had left an heir.
"Our King is not distant from the realities of his people; he is part of this generation, part of this ecosystem, growing, learning, and leading," Tooro's prime minister wrote in an April greeting honouring the King's birthday. His youth is an asset rather than a drawback. It gives Tooro vitality, a new outlook, and the bravery to envision a better future.
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