The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The rift between Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere and his young brother Christopher Kibanzanga over the burial of their mother Christine Biira Mukirania is far from over.
Mukirania, the Kingdom’s Queen Mother succumbed to diabetes and hypertension at Kilembe Mines Hospital in Kasese town on Tuesday.
Kibanzanga who is Rwenzururu Kingdom’s Chief Prince has been feuding with Mumbere and the prime ministerial commission of the kingdom over the dates and burial site of Mukirania.
Kibanzanga who is also government’s Minister of State for Agriculture wants their mother buried at their ancestral home at Kirindi in Bundibugyo district.
On Wednesday, Kibanzanga said she had taken over the burial of the mother and was going to bury her where the struggle for justice started.
The chief prince also argued that Mukirania, a freedom fighter in her own right was married to their Isaya Mukirania and together they stayed in Bundibugyo.
Isaya Mukirania Kibanzanga I the founding king of Rwenzururu shifted to Kasese in 1962 after he started the Rwenzururu Movement, a rebellion against Tooro Kingdom establishment.
On Friday, the Rwenzururu Kingdom Prime ministerial committee met with Kibanzanga to solve the impasse.
However, Kibanzanga stormed out of the meeting after they failed to agree with the commission.
Kibanzanga was seen driving towards Fort Portal Road, sources privy to the meeting said that he was going to pick his mother’s body from the mortuary and take it to Bundibugyo.
According to a source that attended the meeting, Kibanzanga had asked the commission not to allow his mother be buried on a piece of land with no structure. He asked them to bury the mother at his home in Nyamirangara village which is within the vicinity of where the King wanted her buried.
But the commission apparently argued that for the old woman to be buried there, Kibanzanga would have to relinquish that home since the place would have become a kingdom heritage since Mukirania was a pillar in Rwenzururu Kingdom.
That is said to have become the point of departure with the commission causing Kibanzanga to storm out of the meeting.
The Uganda People’s Defence Forces-UPDF remains deployed at Kibanzanga’s home in Nyamirangara where mourners have been congregating since the old woman died on Tuesday.
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