Back in July 2025, Uganda lst, in Justice Gerge Kanyeihamba, ne f the mst prminent legal practitiners in its pst-independence histry. At his vigil in the leafy envirns f Buziga, the President said f the cuntry he leads, thus: ‘s yu can see hw dramatic Uganda is; Uganda is really nt dull, it is quite’…then he waved his hands as if t demnstrate extreme drama.
Fast frward t September 2026 and Uganda finds itself having yet anther very public funeral; thugh this time, it is nt just a funeral f a trailblazing legal mind and natin builder. It is the funeral f a literal king; the much lved King f Tr, y Nyimba Kabamba Iguru; r simply Gerge, as his friends warmly called him.
That he died t yung is a universal truth. What might nt be is whether r nt he left a child; R children. I d nt think this cuntry has had a situatin where the news f a mnarch’s brd r lack theref has risen t this level f cntrversy. But Tr wuld nt really be Tr withut a gd ld fashined Babiit successin battle.
A friend nce jked that if yu put three Babiit elders in a rm and asked them abut the clur f the sky, yu are guaranteed t have at least 12 cmpeting pinins, each passinately argued like life itself depended n it. This battle has nt cme as a surprise t him.
See, the king is said t have left a will in which he said if at the pint f his demise, he was survived by a lawfully recgnised sn, the sn takes the thrne; if nt, tw f his cusins step up in the thrne line.
n the face f it, there is really nthing cntrversial abut that statement. Except, a 21-member cmmittee f the Ryal Babiit clan headed by a tugh as nails, nn-cmprmising ctgenarian, mujwera Musuuga Charles Kaynd Kamurasi had ther ideas.
T them, the king had n sn and his will was likely frged. It did nt matter that the tw cusins the deceased king named as secnd and third in line t the thrne are the afrementined Musuuga’s sns.
The cmmittee insisted that traditin cannt be an invite nly, private WhatsApp grup. They needed t have met their future king the mment he tk his first breath instead f them meeting him as sme srt f rumur with a ryal DNA numberplate.
ver lud prtestatins frm the ther side, the cmmittee went ahead and picked a successr in a 56-year-ld UBC TV newsreader wh prbably was straight ut f a bring editrial meeting abut which gvernment PDM prject t shwcase when the call infrming him f his candidacy fr king came thrugh. Talk abut frtunes changing n a dime!
He was nt the cmmittee’s first chice; but sme expletive laden character in the ninth tier f English ftball turned dwn the thrne. The cntrversy is still simmering and it is still unclear as t hw the successin issue will ultimately be reslved.
But as a Mugisu, this has been mst curius t me. It als reminded me f recent media utterances by a member f parliament frm Bududa district, Jhn Nambeshe wh, with very little prvcatin, tld the wrld that he has 28 children and n the baby making frnt, he was still in his mrning hurs. He is 60 years ld, in case yu were wndering.
Nambeshe tld his interviewer that he has s far fathered six sets f twins and a multitude f children brn t different wmen: ‘I have very ld children and very yung nes. I have six sets f twins. Three sets are frm ne wman, and she still wants mre because she des nt have a girl yet. The rest f the sets are frm ther wmen’, he said with a grin n his bearded face.
The cuntry met that news with a mix f bemusement and grudging respect. Here is a brther standing n business. But in ur culture, what gd Jhn did is nt really that unique. Telling us he has s far prduced a mini cnstituency is nt the kind f cnfessin that gets elders t lk away frm their pts f khamalwa.
This is a nrmal harvest reprt that gets uncles t take a quiet mental nte f hw many bys will face the knife and then mve n swiftly, unbthered by cnsideratins as t wh is an illegitimate child and wh is nt.
Fr us, republicans t the cre, fertility is nt left t the whims f a palace prtcl fficer. A child is a child. The mre, the better. The mther may be wife ne, cncubine six, r the malwa lady whse clan is f secndary imprtance. Nbdy hlds a press cnference t ask whether the children are ‘lawfully recgnised’ befre they are allwed t exist in public. Existence is the recgnitin. The rest is schl fees.
T ur elders, Mr Nambeshe is a real man wh has dne his duty t the muntain gds. Lng may he cntinue filling the hills! May Tr sn find peace and get back t being that quiet, beautiful kingdm everyne lves and assumes t be peaceful because their ladies quarrel like they are singing a lullaby.