Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, the Ugandan king who became the world’s youngest reigning monarch when he was crowned at age 3, has died at 34.
Rukidi IV, ruler of the small Kingdom of Tooro in Uganda’s west, died around 10 p.m. Local time Thursday, Tooro Prime Minister Calvin Armstrong Rwomiire Akiiki announced. The king had been critically ill and seeking treatment in the United States, Akiiki told local paper The Daily Monitor, though the Tooro kingdom did not officially disclose a cause of death.
“This is an immeasurable loss to the Royal Family, the people of Tooro and the nation of Uganda,” Akiiki said in a statement. “I call upon all the people of Tooro to remain united, calm and prayerful during this profoundly difficult time.”
The unmarried king had left an heir, and “continuity of the Crown is assured,” said Balaam Barugahara, a minister in the government of President Yoweri Museveni. Barugahara’s reassurance addressed immediate questions about succession following the sudden death of the young monarch.
Rukidi IV was made king in September 1995 when he was just three years old, after his father, Rukirabasaija Patrick David Matthew Kaboyo Olimi III, died at 49. The boy king’s ascension earned him the Guinness World Record as the world’s youngest reigning monarch, a distinction he held throughout his life.
He was the 13th monarch of the kingdom, which was founded more than 200 years ago, and ruled over more than two million people. While Uganda is officially a republic governed by an elected head of state, it contains several traditional monarchies that oversee their kingdoms, which have existed since pre-colonial times. Their political power is largely symbolic, but they wield significant cultural and social influence.
The Kingdom of Tooro, located in western Uganda, has maintained its cultural institutions despite the country’s modern governmental structure. Rukidi IV’s nearly three-decade reign, begun in earliest childhood, spanned a period of significant change in Uganda while preserving the kingdom’s traditional role.