FORT PORTAL, Uganda – The Royal Succession Committee of the Tooro Kingdom has formally selected 36-year-old Prince George Desmond Kamurasi as the next Omukama of the western Ugandan monarchy, moving to secure the hereditary throne following the sudden death of his cousin, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, cultural authorities announced in Fort Portal on Friday, September 4, 2026.
The decisive selection followed an extraordinary closed-door session of the 21-member succession panel convened at Fort Motel in Fort Portal City, resolving succession questions hours after King Oyo’s body arrived in Uganda from the United States for state-assisted royal funeral rites.
Okay News reports that the Royal Succession Committee was constituted on August 28, 2026, by the royal Babiito clan (Ababiito) and chaired by the Omusuuga—the head of the royal clan and principal kingmaker—Charles Akiiki Kamurasi. The body had met daily since Monday, August 31, concluding its deliberations during a four-hour voting session on Friday where 18 attending members participated, with 15 casting ballots in favor of Prince George Kamurasi.
Prince George Kamurasi is the son of Prince George Desmond Jimmy Mugenyi, the younger brother of the late King Patrick David Matthew Olimi Kaboyo II. Under customary dynastic records and the codified will of his grandfather, King George Rukidi III, Prince Mugenyi’s lineage stood second in the established order of royal succession, providing legal and cultural grounding for Kamurasi’s accession to the 180-year-old throne.
Following the conclusion of the balloting in Fort Portal, high-level diplomatic and security consultations were conducted with the central leadership of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) and the central government.
Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces and Chairman of the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, along with the Commander of Land Forces, General Kayanja Muhanga, were formally briefed on the committee’s decision, with General Kainerugaba affirming full military and state endorsement of the selection as fully compliant with the established customs, historical precedents, and customary laws of the Tooro Kingdom.
General Kainerugaba confirmed that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni supports the outcome reached by the royal kingmakers. The endorsement followed the dispatch of a high-level fact-finding delegation led by a senior cabinet minister to Fort Portal, whose extensive stakeholder engagements confirmed broad consensus among traditional elders, clan chiefs, and civic leaders behind Kamurasi’s succession.
While the Royal Succession Committee has finalized its determination, the Omusuuga confirmed that customary protocol dictates that the formal public coronation and ceremonial declaration will take place only after the state funeral and burial rites for the late King Oyo are completed, with Friday’s briefing issued preemptively to curb speculation and preserve peace across the kingdom.
The selection ends days of intense anxiety across Tooro’s two million subjects, providing institutional continuity as the kingdom prepares to bid farewell to King Oyo, who ruled for 31 years after ascending the throne in 1995 as the world’s youngest monarch at the age of three.
