Uganda buries onetime ‘boy king’ whose death has sparked a succession battle

KAMPALA, Uganda — The funeral was underway Saturday in western Uganda for a traditional monarch who ascended the throne of the Tooro Kingdom as an infant in 1995 and died last month at 34, triggering a succession dispute that has rocked the royal family and gripped the entire nation.

The funeral of Tooro’s King Oyo Nyimba in a cathedral in the remote city of Fort Portal, near the Congo border, concludes a nine-day mourning period that was blemished by an increasingly acrimonious dispute over who should succeed him. He will be buried next to his ancestors later on Saturday.

King Oyo, as he was best known to his subjects, was unmarried when he died late in August after suffering from cancer. Elders with the kingdom’s ruling clan, known as the Babiito, said he never declared an heir to them, disputing the account of others in the kingdom who said he left behind a son born out of wedlock. The son has not been publicly identified, leading to sensational claims on social media of at least two possible heirs alleged to be Oyo’s children.

On Wednesday, a committee of Tooro elders announced that they had chosen a prince working as a…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business