A succession dispute has erupted in Uganda’s Tooro Kingdom after a non-league goalkeeper from south-east London declined to become the next king. George Desmond Kamurasi, 36, was selected by a 21-member royal succession committee to succeed his cousin, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV.
Fifteen of the 18 committee members who voted backed Kamurasi, according to committee member Fr Charles Oyo, but the captain and goalkeeper of the ninth-tier SE Dons rejected the position, citing other responsibilities. Reports in Ugandan media said he was reluctant to leave London and was scheduled to play an FA Vase qualifying match around the time of King Oyo’s funeral.
The committee then announced Prince Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, a news anchor and editor at Uganda’s public broadcaster, as successor. The late king’s immediate family rejected that decision, widening a dispute that had already become public before the funeral.
King Oyo died at 34 while receiving cancer treatment in the United States. He had ascended the throne at the age of three and reigned for 31 years. Several thousand people attended Saturday’s ceremony in western Uganda, where President Yoweri Museveni called on the Batoro to resolve the matter peacefully and lawfully.
The king’s sister, Princess Ruth Komuntale, produced what she said was a will drafted in 2022. It designated “a biological son” as heir without naming him, a claim that surprised members of the Tooro elite and conflicted with the succession committee’s vote. The late king’s mother also said the dispute had undermined the family’s ability to mourn.
The Babiito royal committee defended its selection, saying it had followed Tooro culture and traditions. Uganda recognises four traditional kingdoms, restored in 1993 after being abolished following independence; they now function mainly as cultural institutions with limited political power.