A reported romance between the late Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru IV and a Rwandan princess has sparked controversy following claims that members of the Tooro royal family opposed their marriage in 2024, allegedly because they wanted the king to marry a woman from his own kingdom and potentially produce a future heir.
The account, published by the government-owned New Vision, suggested that Oyo’s marriage plans were influenced by concerns about the continuity of the Tooro monarchy and the identity of the woman who would potentially become the mother of a future king.
According to the report, one of Oyo’s relatives appreciated the Rwandan princess’s beauty but was unwilling to support her becoming the monarch’s official wife.
The relative reportedly advised Oyo to find a Mutooro, arguing that a woman from Tooro could give birth to a future king and help preserve the kingdom’s royal lineage.
The alleged intervention reportedly left Oyo disappointed because the Rwandan princess was his preferred choice.
In an apparent attempt to keep the relationship alive, Oyo was said to have offered the princess the option of becoming his second wife if he married a Mutooro as his official queen.
The princess, however, reportedly rejected the arrangement, unwilling to accept a secondary position in the king’s marriage.
Despite the alleged breakdown of their marriage plans, the two were said to have remained close friends.
The report further claimed that the princess was overwhelmed by grief when she received news of Oyo’s death in August 2026. She allegedly locked herself inside a house in Kampala’s Nakawa Division and spent two days weeping.
The account brought renewed attention to the question of Oyo’s heir and the expectations that surrounded his private life as a hereditary monarch.
Oyo became king in 1995 at the age of three following the death of his father, Omukama Patrick David Matthew Kaboyo Olimi III. He reigned for more than three decades before his death, leaving the kingdom to undertake a royal succession process that culminated in the selection of his cousin, Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, who became Edward Rukidi Nyabongo I and was crowned on September 29, 2026.
The reported marriage episode raised questions about the extent to which the late king’s personal choices were influenced by expectations surrounding the future of the throne. However, the claim that the royal family had actively blocked his proposed marriage has now been publicly challenged.
Ron Kawamara, another of Oyo’s cousins, responded directly to the New Vision report in a social media comment addressed to the newspaper and its chief executive officer, Don Wanyama.
“This wrong. It never happened. Please retract,” Kawamara wrote, dismissing the account and calling for its withdrawal.
His response casts doubt on the reported family intervention and the alleged marriage proposal involving the Rwandan princess. He did not, however, offer further details about the relationship or explain whether Oyo and the princess had ever considered marriage.
The dispute leaves the reported 2024 episode contested, with the central question of whether the royal family intervened in Oyo’s marriage plans remaining unresolved.
Oyo did not have an official wife (Omugo) by the time of his death but his family insists he left behind an heir.
The issue of marriage is also a thorny issue for new king Omukama Edward Rukidi Nyabongo I whose wife is from Teso and whose son cannot inherit the Tooro throne in future. At play also is Nyabongo I’s strong faith as a Mulokole, and a warning from a Bishop that the Omukama should stick to his one woman from Teso instead of proposals to marry a second wife, a Mutooro woman, to give him a male child who can succeed him in future. (See Details Here, There and Over There).
