FORT PORTAL, Uganda— George Desmond Kamurasi, a relatively little-known member of Tooro’s royal family who has spent much of his adult life in Britain building a career in football, has emerged as the preferred successor to the late King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV.
Kamurasi, 36, was selected by Tooro’s Royal Succession Committee during a meeting in Fort Portal on Friday, September 4, according to journalist Andrew Mwenda.
The 21-member committee met at Fort Motel, where 18 members were present and 15 voted in favour of Kamurasi.
The decision marks a major step towards determining who will inherit the Tooro throne following the death of King Oyo in Texas on August 26, 2026.
However, Kamurasi has not yet been formally proclaimed or installed as king.
The formal announcement is expected to be made by Omusuuga Charles Akiiki Kamurasi, head of the Babiito royal clan, after Oyo’s burial, in accordance with Tooro custom.
Mwenda said he disclosed the committee’s decision before the formal announcement to prevent social media speculation from creating confusion around the succession.
A royal with an unfamiliar public profile
For many Ugandans, the man now at the centre of Tooro’s succession is not a familiar public figure.
Kamurasi has spent much of his life in the United Kingdom, where football became a central part of his personal and professional journey.
Accounts and videos associated with his coaching work portray him as a motivational figure who frequently speaks about discipline, responsibility, resilience and learning from failure.
He has also spoken publicly about a troubled period during his adolescence.
In one account, Kamurasi said his mother died when he was 14, leaving him angry and vulnerable to negative influences.
He said he eventually found himself in prison.
“I was angry. I made the wrong decisions. I got into the wrong circle and ended up in jail.”
Kamurasi has described his time in custody as a turning point, saying he eventually accepted responsibility for his actions rather than blaming other people.
“I was in that cell when I realised that everything I had done was my fault. I took responsibility.”
Football, he said, subsequently became the vehicle through which he rebuilt his life.
From prison to football
After leaving prison, Kamurasi said he committed himself to football, pursued opportunities and gradually achieved successes that had once appeared beyond reach.
He has spoken of being scouted by the Nike Academy and of playing in Barcelona while Pep Guardiola was watching, describing those experiences as achievements he once believed were impossible.
His football career later extended into lower-league and grassroots football in England, where he has been associated with clubs including Ashford United and worked as a goalkeeper and coach.
His coaching work has also become an avenue for him to speak to young players about overcoming mistakes and refusing to allow difficult circumstances to determine their future.
That personal narrative — of failure, accountability and recovery — now takes on a different significance as Kamurasi prepares, if formally confirmed, to assume one of Uganda’s most prominent traditional positions.
Royal lineage behind the selection
Kamurasi’s path to the throne is rooted not only in his personal story but also in a direct line of Tooro royalty.
He is the son of George Desmond “Jimmy” Mugenyi, a younger brother of former Tooro King Patrick David Mathew Olimi Kaboyo II, the father of King Oyo.
That makes Kamurasi a first cousin of the late king.
He is also a grandson of King George David Matthew Kamurasi Rukidi III, who ruled Tooro from 1928 to 1965.
According to Mwenda, Jimmy Mugenyi had been placed second in the line of succession to his brother Olimi Kaboyo II under the will of their father, King Rukidi III.
That royal lineage became particularly significant after Oyo’s death and the emergence of uncertainty over his successor.
Succession dispute preceded Kamurasi’s selection
Oyo’s death initially left the question of succession unusually unsettled.
Tooro Kingdom Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki said the late king had left a young son who would be introduced according to tradition.
Queen Mother Best Kemigisa also reportedly told President Yoweri Museveni that Oyo had left an heir.
But Omusuuga Charles Akiiki Kamurasi and other Babiito elders subsequently said they were unaware of any biological child of the late king.
The disagreement created uncertainty around the succession and prompted the Babiito royal clan to establish a 21-member committee on August 28 to guide the process.
The committee then held several days of consultations before settling on George Kamurasi.
Current reporting confirms that 15 of the 18 members present backed him.
Museveni, Muhoozi back committee choice
The committee’s decision has also received reported support from Uganda’s political leadership.
Mwenda said he briefed Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba and Commander Land Forces Gen Kayanja Muhanga after the committee reached its decision.
According to Mwenda, Kainerugaba endorsed Kamurasi’s selection, saying it was consistent with Tooro customs, historical precedent and the laws governing succession.
Mwenda further said Kainerugaba told him that President Yoweri Museveni supports the committee’s decision.
He said Museveni had sent a delegation led by a senior Cabinet minister to Fort Portal to consult key stakeholders and that the consultations helped establish what the committee considered broad consensus around Kamurasi.
The claims were being reported as Mwenda’s account, with no separate public statement from State House or the Tooro Kingdom confirming the presidential endorsement at the time of publication.
A very different successor to Oyo
If formally proclaimed and installed, Kamurasi would enter the Tooro throne with a dramatically different personal history from his predecessor.
Oyo became king at just three years old and spent his entire adult life under the responsibilities and public visibility of the monarchy.
Kamurasi, by contrast, grew up largely outside Uganda’s public spotlight and spent much of his adulthood in Britain, where he pursued football and developed a career as a coach.
Also Read: President Museveni receives King Oyo’s body at Entebbe Airport
His selection therefore represents more than a change of name at the top of the Tooro royal hierarchy.
It would bring to Karuziika Palace a monarch shaped not by childhood immersion in royal duties, but by a life that he has publicly described in terms of adversity, rehabilitation, football and personal responsibility.
The qualities Kamurasi has spent years urging young footballers to embrace — discipline, resilience, accountability and the determination to recover from failure — could soon be tested on a far larger stage.
For now, however, he remains the successor selected by the Royal Succession Committee, with the formal proclamation still to come after King Oyo’s burial.
If the decision proceeds through the remaining traditional processes, George Desmond Kamurasi will become the next Omukama of Tooro and begin a new chapter for a kingdom emerging from one of the most closely watched successions in its recent history.
