Rwenzururu Kingdom Celebrates Mumbere’s 57th Coronation Anniversary

By Gad Masereka

The 57th anniversary of Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere Iremangoma of Rwenzururu’s coronation will take place today in Kasese District, and preparations are well under way.

Since Omusinga Mumbere and his royal guards were taken into custody in November 2016, this will be the first coronation anniversary to be commemorated.

Today, the king will commemorate 57 years since he succeeded his father, Isaya Mukirania Kibanzanga, to the throne. The first king of the Rwenzururu Kingdom, Mukirania, passed away in 1966.

Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu, though, was acknowledged in 2009 by the government, which is run by the National Resistance Movement (NRM). Thus, it has been 14 years since the government acknowledged the cultural institution.

The coronation anniversary celebration for Rwenzururu Kingdom was last conducted in 2016, and for the previous seven years, it had been postponed due to Omusinga Mumbere and 217 of his subjects’ ongoing legal battles in the International Crimes Division of the High Court.

When the Directorate of Public Prosecutions dismissed all charges against Omusinga Mumbere in June, the kingdom officials said they could not celebrate until he had obtained his freedom.

Omusinga Mumbere visited his kingdom on October 4 and will participate in the festivities this year.

Guidelines

The coronation anniversary celebration’s organizing subcommittee chair, Mr. Gad Baluku Mbayahi, stated that women are not allowed to wear trousers or skimpy or revealing clothing.

We respect the fact that everyone has the freedom to wear whichever they like, said Mr. Mbayahi. However, we are arguing that we shouldn’t go against the exact standards we are meant to defend for a cultural event like the anniversary of the coronation. On that day, let our women wear modest clothing and abstain from wearing miniskirts and pants.

He did, however, claim that the kingdom had received Shs100 million of the Shs270 million allocated for the event.

Despite the fact that we continue to have a financial deficit, I am glad that the funds we are using were raised by the Banyarwenzururu themselves. We need to overcome the dependency syndrome, in which we believe that the government must back all of our initiatives, the speaker stated.

Mr. Mbayahi also disclosed that President Museveni had been asked by the monarchy to attend the coronation celebration as the chief guest in addition to a number of other central government leaders.

Mr. John Thawite, the kingdom’s information minister, announced a number of coronation-related preparations, including diverse events including a tree-planting exercise and general cleaning of Kasese Town.