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There are things you know professionally. And there are things you know because you belong.

I am a journalist. Sports journalist. I knew King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukiidi IV mostly through sport.

I am also his subject. But that is not enough. I have now lived under two Tooro kings.

I saw Oyo’s father, His Majesty Patrick Matthew Kaboyo Olimi III, return to his throne in 1993 when I was a very young boy in primary school.

I watched both grow into their reigns, albeit only briefly with his father. Now I have watched both die just when we seemed to be beginning to experience the full, beautiful potential of their lives.

This is difficult to carry. Oyo was only 34. It feels impossibly young. Senseless, too.

A lot will be written about the King. About the three-year-old who ascended the Tooro throne in 1995 and became the world’s youngest reigning monarch.

About the boy who grew into a young man carrying responsibilities that had found him before he could possibly understand them.

About his education, his work, his public life and his vision for Tooro. I will leave much of that to others.

I want to remember the King I knew through sport. And perhaps explain why his death feels so personal.

Like many of his subjects, I had loved him from a distance, just as I had loved his father when everything about the monarchy seemed like a beautiful fairytale to a toddler.

The King who listened

But the actual sit-down was almost two years ago. That was when I first understood something about him up close.

My team and I had gone to the Karuziika to present the vision of the Fort Portal City Marathon to him. We arrived with an idea to explain. He arrived, in a sense, with the weight of a kingdom.

What struck me was his patience. He listened. Properly listened.

He asked questions. He wanted to understand what we were proposing, what the marathon could mean for Fort Portal and Tooro and what we hoped it would become.

There was no rushing through the appointment. That stayed with me.

Seven months later, he stood at Boma Grounds for the inaugural Fort Portal City Marathon, as our guest of honour.

The idea we had taken to the Karuziika had become a road full of runners.

And the King was there. That is one of the memories that hurts now, but also one we celebrate.

Sometimes – some will argue often – life simply does not give us everything we hope for.

After discussing it with the Prime Minister, Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki, I had been looking forward to interviewing Oyo for the Nation Media Group. I was also looking forward to having him on my podcast, The Game of Life.

I wanted to sit him down properly. To talk about sport. Tooro. Youth. Leadership. Education. His childhood. His football. Arsenal. Thierry Henry.

The things a King says in public and perhaps the things he says when the microphones are off.

Those conversations will never happen. That hurts in a different way.

Because grief is not only about the memories you have. Sometimes it is about the memories you were expecting to make.

He belonged to sport, to community

Oyo loved football. Properly loved it. At home, he belonged to every football community. Heck, he belonged to every sporting discipline. He belonged to everyone.

Abroad, he was an Arsenal man. Thierry Henry was his favourite player. He played football himself in his free time.

There is something wonderfully human about that. Before the crown became an institution, there was a boy watching Henry glide past defenders in red and white.

A boy who wanted to play. A boy who had a favourite player. The King never entirely lost that boy.

But football was only the beginning. Almost every sporting discipline in Tooro seemed to find its way back to the Karuziika.

Rugby. Cycling. Golf. Athletics. Football. Name it. They all came.

The Uganda Sevens came to the palace. Rugby players found themselves in the presence of a King who understood their world. There were shirts to sign and conversations to have.

Golfers found a monarch who did not simply stand beside the game for photographs.

He played. He teed off tournaments. He backed junior competitions.

In cycling, he did not merely wave riders away from the start. He got on a bicycle himself and rode.

That was Oyo. Participation over ceremony. Sport over speeches. And young people at the centre.

The Tooro Masaza Cup became one of the kingdom’s great sporting and cultural gatherings, bringing the nine counties together.

Oyo understood what that meant. The competition was football. But it was also identity. Belonging. Pride. A meeting place.

A way of reminding young people that their county, their kingdom and their future could occupy the same space.

He understood that sport could do work. It could unite people. Discover talent. Build discipline. Improve health. Create opportunity. Give young people somewhere to belong.

And he understood something else that matters. Sport and education were never supposed to be enemies. They were companions.

He consistently encouraged young people to engage in sport while valuing education and skills development.

His wider youth agenda reflected that same belief – that young people needed opportunities to develop their talents, but also the knowledge and practical skills to build lives beyond the playing field.

That is why I hesitate to reduce his sporting legacy to enthusiasm. The enthusiasm was obvious.

You could see it. You could hear it. Sport was one of those subjects that seemed to make him relax into himself.

But there was purpose underneath it. He understood that sport was much bigger than the result. Bigger than the pitch. Bigger than the trophy.

A marathon could make a city move. A bicycle could take the King into the counties.

A golf tournament could put children on a course they might otherwise never have entered.

A football competition could bring nine counties together. A rugby team could walk into the Karuziika and feel that the palace was also theirs.

Sport could make a kingdom feel like a community.

What might have been

And perhaps that is why the news has been so difficult to absorb.

When the rumours began trickling in, I dismissed them. You do that with news you cannot bear to believe.

You tell yourself there must be another explanation. You hope against hope.

Then came confirmation. And suddenly the King was gone. Thirty-four. Thirty-four.

I don’t remember the last time I sobbed this long. Perhaps because I knew him.

Perhaps because I am from Fort Portal. From Tooro. Perhaps because I am his subject.

Perhaps because I had believed there was still so much time. So many conversations. So many sporting occasions. So many possibilities.

And perhaps because I have seen this before. I lived under another Tooro king. I watched him go, too.

Now Oyo is gone. Both deaths arriving at that cruel point when you begin to believe you are finally seeing what their reigns might become.

Both leaving behind the unbearable question of what might have been.

That is the cruelty of losing someone at 34. You are not only mourning the life lived. You are mourning the life that was still coming.

There is a storm building up in my eyes all over again. I better stop here.

May His Majesty rest in peace.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame is defending his country’s purge on alcoholic drinks imported from neighbouring countries, but which didn’t meet local standards, saying it was for the sake of public health.

In a press conference in Kigali, President Kagame said profits come second to any public safety concerns and that Rwanda will not lower its standards bar for commercial reasons.

He spoke weeks after the Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) suspended 52 imported alcoholic beverages authorities had linked to death of consumers who had partook them.

The decision, however, elicited protests from standards agencies in Nairobi and Kampala because Kenya and Uganda, the source of the drinks, had allowed them to be sold after assessing they met standards.

In Kigali, President Kagame, who chairs the African Union’s Domestic Health Financing and New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad), said that people’s lives matter more than any financial gains.

‘People are talking about loss of jobs but is the loss of jobs more important than loss of lives?’ posed President Kagame, who addressed the media on Monday, ahead of the Africa Mindset Reset Forum which kicked off on Tuesday.

Rwanda’s crackdown on illicit drinks raised questions on whether standards had become a new trading barrier in the East African Community. Either that or commentators asked whether the standards used by these countries varied.

On August 5, the Rwanda FDA targeted alcoholic beverages including five originating from Kenya, in what the Authority described to be ‘in the interest of public health.’

The affected Kenyan brands included Gilbeys Gin manufactured by Kenya Breweries Limited, Kenya King Gin and Safari Gin manufactutred by London Distillers Kenya Limited, Sweet Berry Potable Spirits and Avalon Portable Spirits by Zhen Hong Kenya Limited.

In Rwanda, however, the crackdown went as far as the officials involved in tests and the leaders of the FDA.

Kagame argued those officials had contributed to the sub-standard alcohol products getting into the country.

He argued that the fact that other East African Communities (EAC) member states allow the consumption of the affected products is no justification for Rwanda to do the same irrespective of the health harms linked to toxic alcohol.

‘We deal with those people,’ he stated.

‘If they are approved in other countries that is not my matter but as the leader of this country, they will have to answer for their actions.’

‘Maybe there is a minor problem compared to what we are dealing with. It cannot prevent us from dealing with this major issue that we need resolved.’

Kenya and Uganda have separately argued that their local approvals should be basis for Rwanda to assess the quality of those drinks, as well as the principles of the EAC Common Market Protocol and the EAC Customs Unions, two pillars of the regional bloc that address matters of movement of goods and services including harmonised testing systems, standards and certification of products.

The trial of prison warder Moses Anguyo and three co-accused opened at the High Court in Kiboga on Thursday, with the officer who survived the February 23 shooting recounting how his wife and one-year-old son were killed.

Assistant Superintendent of Prisons (ASP) Ivan Niwagaba, who was in charge of Kiboga Central Prison and Anguyo’s supervisor, told the court that he escaped after Anguyo allegedly pointed a gun at him and attempted to shoot him.

The special High Court session, presided over by Justice Jane Okuo Kajuka, began after the four accused pleaded not guilty to 11 counts.

Niwagaba, the prosecution’s first witness, told court that he had arrived at the prison with his wife Sarah Ayebare and their one-year-old son Salson Nuwagaba before proceeding into the facility to check on inmates.

He said he later discovered that Anguyo, who had been assigned guard duty, was not at his sentry.

Niwagaba said he sent an officer responsible for deployment, Majorine Babirye, to establish Anguyo’s whereabouts.

Babirye later reported that Anguyo had left his assigned position and was in another area near the Kiboga District Health Office.

Niwagaba said he decided to replace Anguyo at the abandoned guard post and later confronted him over his absence and use of a mobile phone while on duty.

He told court that Anguyo refused to surrender the phone and also rejected advice to return home and report the following day.

According to Niwagaba, the confrontation escalated when Anguyo pointed his firearm at him.

‘He cocked the gun that was already pointed at me. The gun failed to discharge the bullets,’ Niwagaba told court.

He said he ordered other prison officers, including Hope Catherine and Kakaire, to run for safety before escaping into a nearby banana plantation.

Niwagaba told court that Anguyo then pursued the officers while shouting that he would ‘finish the westerners’ that day.

Because Anguyo was moving towards the area where Niwagaba had left his family, he attempted to use his phone to warn them.

But by then, his wife and son had already been shot while seeking refuge inside a vehicle, the court heard.

They were later taken to Kiboga Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.

Niwagaba became emotional while recounting the incident, prompting the court to allow him time to regain composure before continuing with his testimony.

Anguyo had earlier told court during plea proceedings that he had killed the four people but claimed the acts were not intentional and followed provocation.

The prosecution, led by State Attorney Daisy Nabasitu and Senior State Attorney Stephen Ariong, has lined up more than 12 witnesses.

Anguyo faces murder charges relating to the deaths of prison officer Bright Akishuri, Sarah Ayebare, Salson Nuwagaba and ASP Hope Catherine.

He also faces two counts of aggravated robbery and a charge of threatening violence.

The prosecution alleges that on February 23, Anguyo robbed a woman at Saza Shops in Kiboga Town Council and used a firearm during the incident.

He is also accused of threatening to shoot or kill ASP Niwagaba at Kiboga Government Prison.

His co-accused – Peter Anziku, also known as Dickson Okwonzi, and Hellen Amviko – are accused of assisting him to evade arrest and prosecution after the killings.

The prosecution alleges that the three assisted Anguyo at different locations between February 23 and March 27, 2026.

The trial continues on Friday, with the prosecution expected to call additional witnesses.