President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has paid tribute to the late Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, recalling a letter the former Tooro King wrote to him weeks before his death.
Museveni was speaking on Tuesday at Karuziika Palace in Fort Portal during the coronation of Edward Rukidi Nyabongo I, following the death of King Oyo on August 27, 2026.
The President said he was saddened when, a day after King Oyo’s burial, he found a letter dated June 15, 2026, in which the monarch thanked him for several matters, including the appointment of ministers from Tooro.
“I want to salute the memory of King Oyo for the wonderful work he did. I was very sad because, a day after he was buried, I was going through my documents and found a letter he had written to me on 15th June 2026, thanking me for a number of things, including the appointment of ministers from Tooro. I was really sad,” Museveni said.
The President had earlier described Oyo as a “very good person and leader” when he received the late King’s body at Entebbe International Airport on September 4.
Museveni is one of the regents who raised Omukama Oyo.
The President is credited for restoring cultural institutions in 1993 and leading the effort to have them provided for in the 1995 constitution. The institutions had been abolished by the regimes of old.
Ahead of the restoration, the young NRA government had appointed most of the Monarchs as diplomats in a bid to correct historical injustices.
The restoration paved the way for the return of the Tooro monarchy, and Omukama Oyo Rukidi’s father, Omukama Patrick Matthew Kaboyo Olimi III, who had been serving as a Ugandan diplomat in Cuba among other countries.
