Rwenzururu Queen Mother buried

Send off. The State Minister for Agriculture, Mr Christopher Kibanzanga (3rd left), lays a wreath on the casket containing the remains of Rwenzururu Queen Mother Christine Biira Mukirani at her burial in Bundibugyo District yesterday. PHOTO BY JOEL KAGUTA

What you need to know:

  • With funding from the President, the deceased was planning to build a vocational institution at Nyamirangara Village in Muhokya Sub-county, Kasese, the same place King Mumbere had proposed to bury her.
  • Retired Bishop of South Rwenzori Diocese Zebedee Masereka appealed to the royal family to resolve their conflicts.
    The Rwenzururu Queen Mother died last week at the age of 85.

Bundibugyo. Rwenzururu Queen Mother Christine Biira Mukirani was buried at Kirindi Village, Kasulenge Parish, Harugale Sub-county, Bundibugyo District yesterday despite opposition from King Charles Wesley Mumbere.

Although the kingdom house of representatives was supposed to honour her, it was not the case because of the rift her death created in the family.
King Mumbere and his young brother, Mr Christopher Kibanzanga, the State Minister for Agriculture, clashed on the choice of the burial place with the former ordering that it should be in Kasese District.
However, Mr Kibanzanga on Friday defied King Mumbere, who had been granted 14 days by the International Crimes Division of the High Court to travel to the kingdom to mourn his mother.

The minister instead picked their mother’s body from Fort Portal Hospital mortuary and took it to their ancestral home in Bundibugyo.
This prompted the king to snub the burial, saying he has been “humiliated” by not burying their mother in Kasese where the kingdom seat is.
Kingdom attorney general Alfred Makasi, who attended the burial, said King Mumbere would instead travel to Kasese today ahead of the final funeral rites expected on Wednesday.

“The Omusinga (King) is in total grief because of the death. He sent a request to the elders to have the last funeral rites be held in Kasese because this is a shared institution,” Mr Makasi said.
However, in a telephone interview with King Mumbere yesterday, he said his committee was yet to decide on the date.
“There are people in Kasese who are working on that programme but the date given by attorney general is not our position. It is his own because officially, the Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu (Kingdom) was not represented at the burial,” he said.

Mr Kibanzanga told mourners that it was not proper for their mother to be buried in Kasese when they have ancestral land.
“It was not about which side was popular, which side was legitimate but it was about what was right. I have no debt with my mother. She did not divorce and did not remarry after the death of my father, so I had to bring her home. May her soul rest in peace,” he said.

Mr Kibanzanga commended President Museveni for being a friend to their mother, adding that the royal family has benefitted from that relationship.
In a speech read for him by Vice President Edward Ssekandi, President Museveni praised the deceased as a strong woman who fought tirelessly to protect the young family and the culture of the Bakonzo after her husband’s death in 1966.

Mr Museveni, who contributed Shs10m towards the funeral, said the Queen Mother was always against ideas of violence and destruction and used her position to promote harmony and coexistence.
“The late Nyima Omukama (Queen Mother) fought tirelessly to achieve unity of all tribes in the Rwenzori region and beyond. When I first met her, I asked her what motivated her to endure to stay in the mountains, she told me she had already pledged her life to protect the family and the kingdom,” Mr Museveni said.
The President said the deceased lived a “truthful and steadfast life” hence asking the leaders in the sub-region to emulate her.

With funding from the President, the deceased was planning to build a vocational institution at Nyamirangara Village in Muhokya Sub-county, Kasese, the same place King Mumbere had proposed to bury her.
Bwamba King Martin Kamya in his message read by prime minister Wilson Mugulya hailed the late for fighting for the two cultural institutions.
Retired Bishop of South Rwenzori Diocese Zebedee Masereka appealed to the royal family to resolve their conflicts.
The Rwenzururu Queen Mother died last week at the age of 85.
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