The new king spent his working life reading the news. Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, 56, a television presenter with the state broadcaster UBC, according to the BBC, has been crowned the 13th monarch of the Batooro people, in a ceremony marking the end of a succession dispute.
The dispute began with a death. King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV died last month of cancer, at 34. His mother then said that a previously undisclosed son was entitled to the throne, and challenged the selection of Kijanangoma, named as successor days before the burial. Oyo’s close family rejected the choice.
There were rules about who could be king. The monarch must come from the Babiito clan, from the lineage of King George David Matthew Kamurasi Rukidi III, royal palace sources told the BBC. Kijanangoma and the late king were cousins; both were grandsons of Rukidi III, the 11th king. On that account the crown moved sideways, not down.
A king of 34 is dead. A cousin of 56 takes the throne. The man who read the announcements now is the announcement, the 13th monarch of Tooro, in a ceremony that the reports describe as closing the dispute — the mother and her undisclosed son notwithstanding.