Drama continues to surround the events following the death of Queen mother Biira Christine Mukaranira who was burried on Sunday at Harugale sub county in Bundibugyo district.
King Charles and his brother Mr.Christopher Kibazanga who is also state minister for Agriculture clashed over the burial site with the King and the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu preferring the Queen mother to be burried at her Nyamirangu estate in Muhokya sub county in Kasese district.
Charles Wesley Mumbere, known by his royal title Irema-Ngoma I,is the king of the Rwenzururu kingdom of western Uganda. He was arrested in November 2016, after clashes in the kingdom that escalated into a joint UPDF and Uganda Police Force raid on Buhikira Royal palace that left over 100 people dead.
The king was accused of harbouring rebels in his compound and later charged with 41 counts including terrorism, murder among other capital offences together with 203 royal guards. He was later granted bail in January 2017 with conditions that restricted his movements to Kampala,Jinja and Wakiso.
Following the death of his mother,King Charles through his lawyers requested court to grant him permission to travel to Kasese to attend ritual functions. The war crimes division of the high court in Kampala gave Mumbere 14 days to travel to Kasese for his mother’s burial and return to Kampala. In Bakonzo culture,Kings are forbidden from participating in burials.
The absence of an official royal cemetery for Bakonzo royals prompted the King’s young brother Mr.Christopher to ignore culture norms and bury their mother at the family’s ancestral lands in Bundibugyo. This displeased King Charles and the institution of the OBR who shunned the burial and threatened to take Mr.Chrisopher to court.
Mr.Christopher in his defence castigated the view that the king is flawless;
“If that were so, some of my brother’s words and actions wouldn’t have landed his kingdom into trouble which saw hundreds of lives lost and others arrested including him.”
Mr.Christopher, a sober minded gentleman questioned the king’s motive for traveling to Kasese. He criticized the kingdom’s politicisation of his mother’s death and the planned homecoming of the king. The king was planning on addressing his subjects thus risked falling prey to the charge of holding illegal assembly.
Mr.Christopher further castigated the king;
“Experience and reasoning must lead us and not people’s titles and positions. A title devoid of substance ceases to command the respect and admiration of men and women whose honour has been achieved on the basis of merit and consistent good conduct.”
The Rwenzururu are still volatile and recovering from the clashes of 2016.The love for an acrimonious king that breeds hate and division is catastrophic for their culture.
The king holds a vendetta against the government and the nation thus lacks the moral fabric vital for the harmony of the Rwenzururu people.
