The body of Uganda’s King Oyo Nyimba, who became the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he took the throne at the age of three in 1995, arrived back in the country on Friday after his death from cancer, and ahead of burial on September 12.
King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV of Tooro Kingdom, one of many traditional monarchies in the country and located near the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda’s west, died on August 27 in the United States where he was receiving treatment.
Uganda is a constitutional republic and executive power is vested in an elected head of state. But the monarchies of the country’s several ancient kingdoms that reigned before colonialism still exist and wield enormous cultural and social influence.
A video of his taking the throne in 1995 shows a little boy sitting in his chair playing with a toy, his small body almost disappearing underneath the huge royal crown and robes. Taking the role at such a young age endeared him to many.
Oyo Nyimba’s body arrived aboard a chartered flight at the country’s Entebbe international airport where President Yoweri Museveni was among a small crowd of dignitaries waiting to receive it.
“We don’t really believe that his majesty is no longer with us, (it is) as if we are still dreaming and I wish it could really be a dream,” said lawmaker Jennifer Mujungu, whose constituency lies in Oyo Nyimba’s kingdom.
Museveni walked to the casket, draped in both the country’s and the kingdom’s flags, laid a wreath on it, and bowed.
The casket was then loaded onto a military helicopter and transported to Tooro Kingdom where official mourning ceremonies will begin, lasting up to burial on September 12.
“It is a painful moment for us…someone who went laughing, someone who had a whole life ahead of him,” said Davis Mugenyi, a member of the royal family who was at the airport to receive his body.
The king was a U.N. ambassador championing the fight against HIV and AIDS, and the U.N. paid tribute to him.
The prime minister of the kingdom, Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki, said last week the king, who was unmarried, had left an heir and that “continuity of the Crown is assured.”
