Attorney General Sam Mayanja backs King Oyo’s will in Tooro succession dispute as kingdom buries its former ‘boy king’

What the report says

Uganda’s Minister of State for Lands, Dr. Sam Mayanja, has issued a formal legal opinion advising President Yoweri Museveni that the late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV’s will should be the main guide in resolving the Tooro Kingdom succession dispute. According to Watchdog Uganda, the opinion says any challenge to the document should be settled by the courts rather than by internal disagreement alone.

The three-page opinion, dated September 12, 2026, was released as Tooro Kingdom buried the former monarch at the Karambi Royal Tombs in Fort Portal. King Oyo, who became king at age three in 1995 and later became known internationally as the “boy king,” died last month in the United States while receiving cancer treatment, the report said.

Watchdog Uganda reported that Mayanja’s advice relies on Uganda’s constitutional and cultural laws governing traditional leadership. He said the will outlines succession options, including a biological son if one is lawfully recognized, or another named relative if that son cannot inherit. He also noted that the kingdom’s older constitutional arrangement remains suspended and that unresolved disputes over the will make judicial review necessary.

The report says the opinion arrives amid a wider family and clan dispute over who should succeed King Oyo. One faction had already named Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, while the king’s close relatives rejected that move and said a son exists, though his identity has not been publicly confirmed. The disagreement has added pressure to the kingdom’s mourning period and raises questions about how Tooro will settle its next succession.