TEARS! HEARTBREAK! GRIEF: Best Kemigisa and the Pain of Losing a Son and King — after Losing Her Husband and Daughter Years Before

There are some losses that time does not erase. It merely teaches a person how to carry them.

For Queen Mother Best Kemigisa, the death of King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV has reopened a chapter of grief that began more than 30 years ago.

Before Uganda came to know Oyo as the boy king who inherited the Tooro throne at just three years old, he was simply her little boy.

And before she became the mother of one of Africa’s most recognisable traditional rulers, Best Kemigisa was a young widow who had suddenly been left to raise a royal family after the death of her husband.

Omukama Patrick David Matthew Kaboyo Olimi III, the 12th King of Tooro, died suddenly on August 26, 1995, aged 49. His death transformed the life of his young family—and immediately placed an extraordinary burden on his three-year-old son.

Oyo was enthroned on September 12, 1995, becoming one of the youngest monarchs in the world. He would remain on the Tooro throne for nearly 31 years, growing from a toddler surrounded by regents into an adult monarch who became a familiar figure far beyond western Uganda.

But while the kingdom saw a new king, his mother was confronting a devastating personal reality.

She had lost her husband.

She now had a three-year-old king to protect and raise.

And another tragedy was already unfolding.

The child she could not save

In the months surrounding Oyo’s accession, Best Kemigisa was also dealing with the illness of her youngest daughter, Princess Celia Komukyeya.

Contemporary biographical records identify Celia as the youngest of the three children of Olimi III and Best Kemigisa. She was born in 1994 and died in October 1997, aged four, from leukaemia at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.

The circumstances made the loss even more painful.

A 2026 account published by the Uganda Media Centre recalls that in early 1995, Best Kemigisa was in London with her three children while Celia received medical treatment. The family had temporarily stayed in Lewisham because the little princess required long-term care at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton.

Years later, Best Kemigisa herself recalled the devastating sequence of events.

She was a young mother dealing with a sick child abroad when her husband returned to Tooro.

He died there.

Then she lost her daughter.

The grief of losing her husband was therefore followed by the death of a four-year-old child.

And through it all was Oyo—the small boy who had suddenly become King.

From little boy to King

Oyo’s childhood was unlike that of almost any other child.

He did not inherit an ordinary family responsibility. He inherited a throne.

Because he was only three, Tooro was administered with the assistance of regents, guardians and members of the royal family. Best Kemigisa was among the principal regents who helped guide and protect the young monarch until he reached adulthood.

For his mother, the responsibility was both political and deeply personal.

She was not merely watching her son grow up.

She was watching the child whose father had died suddenly become the custodian of a centuries-old institution.

The official Tooro Kingdom biography describes Best Kemigisa as having assumed the role of Defender and Regent of the Tooro Crown in 1995, taking on responsibility for protecting the young king.

Oyo eventually came of age.

On April 17, 2010, he was formally crowned at the age of 18.

The little boy had become a grown king.

For his mother, it was a journey that had begun in mourning.

Nearly three decades later, another goodbye

Oyo died on August 27, 2026, at the age of 34, after a period of medical treatment in the United States. His death brought an extraordinary reign to an end.

On September 4, his body returned to Uganda.

At Entebbe International Airport, President Yoweri Museveni received the fallen monarch’s body as members of the royal family, including Queen Mother Best Kemigisa, looked on.

For the nation and Tooro Kingdom, it was the return of a king.

For Best Kemigisa, it was something much more intimate.

It was the return of her son.

The child she had watched ascend the throne.

The boy she had helped guide through childhood.

The young man who eventually carried the royal responsibilities that had been thrust upon him before he was old enough to understand them.

And now, after nearly 31 years, she must watch him being taken to his final resting place.

A mother left with one child

The family tragedy can be reduced to a few dates, but the dates hardly capture what they mean.

• August 1995: her husband died.
• October 1997: her four-year-old daughter died.
• August 2026: her son died.

The three children born to Olimi III and Best Kemigisa were Oyo, Ruth Nsemere Komuntale and Celia Komukyeya. Ruth, the elder sister, is now the surviving sibling of that immediate family.

That leaves a painful symmetry to the story.

A young mother once stood between two children and a kingdom after losing her husband.

Decades later, an ageing Queen Mother stands beside her surviving daughter as the kingdom mourns the child who became its King.

Princess Ruth Nsemere Komuntale, born in 1989, was installed as Batebe, or Princess Royal, by her brother in 1996.

She is now the surviving daughter of Best Kemigisa.

Beyond the crown

The public image of Queen Mother Best Kemigisa has often been defined by her royal duties and advocacy work.

She has been involved in initiatives focusing on women, children and cultural leadership, including the Tooro Women’s Development Association and the African Queens and Women Cultural Leaders Network.

But the story of her family offers another portrait.

It is the portrait of a woman who became a widow while still young, who lost a little daughter to illness, and who spent much of the next three decades watching her only son carry a crown that had arrived on his head because of his father’s death.

The world saw Oyo as the world’s youngest reigning monarch.

Best Kemigisa saw the three-year-old behind the title.

The world watched him grow into a king.

She watched her son grow up.

And now Tooro is preparing to bury its monarch.

The royal ceremonies will speak of the kingdom, the throne, the dynasty and the legacy of a 34-year-old king whose reign began in childhood and ended far earlier than expected.

But beneath all of that ceremony will be a mother facing a grief that no title can soften.

She has already buried her husband.

She has already buried her little daughter.

Now she must bury her son.

And perhaps that is the hardest part of Queen Mother Best Kemigisa’s story: for almost 31 years, the child she lost at the end was the same child she had fought to protect at the beginning.

The kingdom is mourning its King.

Best Kemigisa is mourning Oyo.

Her son.

You can read about the wealth that Omukama Oyo has left behind Here.

Also read about the clash between the Omuhikirwa and Omusuuga Kamurasi regarding Omukama Oyo’s son and the Tooro succession battle Here.

The history of Tooro and its kings since 1800 is Here.