ENTEBBE — The aircraft touched down quietly at Entebbe International Airport, but the silence that followed spoke louder than any announcement.
Inside was His Majesty King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV.
The Tooro Kingdom’s beloved monarch, who ascended the throne as a three-year-old child and reigned for 31 years, has returned home for the last time. He was only 34.
There was no drumbeat of celebration. Only grief.
On the tarmac at 10am Friday, President Yoweri Museveni, who personally cleared the medical and repatriation costs from Dallas, Texas via Nairobi, received the casket. The Queen Mother, Best Kemigisa, and the royal family stood by – a mother who, as State Minister Mary Kuteesa said, “has not just lost a king… she has lost one cut from her umbilical cord.”
The aircraft was no longer a cargo plane. It was a vessel bearing a kingdom’s heart.
From Entebbe, the remains were airlifted to Kyegegwa district in Tooro Kingdom. From there, in a change of protocol requested by his subjects, the casket will be placed on a slow-moving open carrier through Kyegegwa, Kyenjojo and Kabarole to Fort Portal. Thousands are expected to line the Mubende-Fort Portal highway, not for a viewing, but for one final wave.
The body will then lie in state at Karuziika Palace until September 12th – the 31st anniversary of his coronation – when he will be laid to rest at the Karambi Royal Tombs with full state honours and a UPDF gun salute.
For a people who watched him grow from a child king into Entale Ya Tooro, the Lion of Tooro, this is a different kind of royal procession.
There will be no royal wave.
No warm smile.
No familiar presence.
Only memories. Only tears. Only the long, painful road home.
King Oyo’s final journey has begun.
Tooro is mourning. Uganda is mourning.
May His Majesty Rukirabasaija Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV rest in eternal peace.
