When King Oyo Went on Hunger Strike

[Archival Sense]

In July 2014, the quiet courtyards of Karuziika Palace in Fort Portal became the unlikely stage for a political protest unlike any Uganda had seen in years.

Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, the young King of Tooro, had decided to fast.

For six days, the monarch refused food to protest what he described as the division of his ancestral kingdom and the government’s failure to return Tooro assets taken decades earlier.

It was a dramatic move from a young king whose reign had already attracted enormous public attention since he ascended the throne in 1995.

The immediate trigger was the formal recognition of two new cultural institutions. Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu in Kasese and Obudhingiya Bwa Bwamba in Bundibugyo.

Tooro officials argued that Kasese and Bundibugyo had historically been part of Tooro before the abolition of kingdoms in 1967. Their recognition as separate cultural institutions was therefore seen by sections of the kingdom as an attempt to carve pieces out of Tooro’s traditional territory.

The controversy was made even more uncomfortable by President Yoweri Museveni’s involvement.

Museveni, who had been one of Oyo’s official guardians after the young prince became king, attended the installation of Bamba King Maj. Martin Kamya.

For Oyo and some of his subjects, the President’s presence at the ceremony was more than symbolic. It was seen as an endorsement of developments they believed threatened Tooro’s historical boundaries.

“A king does not fast alone”​

By June 2014, the kingdom had decided to make its displeasure public.

Then Tooro Premier Dr Stephen Kaliba announced that Oyo would embark on a six-day fast to protest the creation and recognition of the new cultural institutions without consultation, as well as the delayed return of kingdom assets.

On July 14, Oyo began the fast at Karuziika Palace.

He invited his subjects and religious leaders to join him, famously declaring: “A king does not fast alone.”

For the next six days, the palace took on an unusual atmosphere.

Oyo spent his days in prayer and intercession, while people streamed to the palace to offer support and share their testimonies. Religious leaders from different denominations also visited the young monarch in solidarity.

Every evening, Oyo broke his fast with a simple meal alongside his supporters.

What had begun as a royal protest was quickly becoming a public demonstration of Tooro’s frustrations.

Then came Museveni’s response.

“It will help him shape up”​

While Oyo was fasting at the palace, Museveni appeared largely unimpressed by the protest.

Speaking to journalists at his Rwakitura home, the President said:

“If my son has decided to fast, I don’t mind, let him fast, it will help him shape up and be healthy.”

The comment landed badly in Tooro.

Sections of the kingdom interpreted it as a dismissal — even an insult — to both the Omukama and the grievances that had driven him to fast.

The reaction soon spilled onto the streets of Fort Portal.

Protests were held, police fired teargas and at least four people were arrested.

Tooro Kingdom officials demanded an apology from the President, arguing that his remarks had trivialised serious concerns about the kingdom’s territorial integrity and its assets.

Oyo, however, completed the six-day fast.

But the end of the fast did not mean the end of the dispute.
The two cultural institutions remained in place, and the question of Tooro’s assets continued to simmer.

Five years later, in 2019, Oyo and Museveni signed a Memorandum of Understanding intended to address some of the outstanding issues between the kingdom and the central government.

Yet resolving the assets question proved far more complicated than signing an agreement.

Verification exercises and further discussions continued into the 2020s, keeping alive an issue that had first helped push the young king into his unusual protest.

More than a decade later, Oyo’s six-day fast remains one of the most memorable episodes in the modern history of Tooro Kingdom.

It was a protest carried out not with a march, a political rally or a shutdown, but through silence, prayer and an empty stomach.

And for six days in July 2014, the question of who controlled Tooro’s historical legacy was being argued not only in government offices and palace meetings, but from behind the walls of Karuziika Palace — with a king refusing to eat.


SOURCE: TEH INDEPENDENT