The bitter succession dispute engulfing Tooro Kingdom has opened an old and painful chapter involving Queen Mother Best Kemigisa, the late lawyer Bob Kasango and veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda. At the centre of the controversy is the question of whether events that unfolded more than a decade ago have shaped the increasingly hostile relationship between sections of the royal family and Mwenda, who recently triggered controversy by announcing that a new king had allegedly been selected.
The announcement, which named George Desmond Kamurasi as the purported successor to the late Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, was rejected by senior figures in the kingdom, including the Musuuga of Tooro, Charles Kamurasi. But behind the current confrontation, some people close to the kingdom point to an older dispute involving Mwenda’s former business associate and close friend, Kasango, and the Queen Mother.
The Kasango-Kemigisa dispute
The roots of the dispute can be traced to the late 2000s, when Kemigisa became embroiled in a legal battle over money arising from the sale of land to the Government. According to court records, Kemigisa had instructed Kasango and his law firm, Hall and Partners Advocates, to recover compensation due to her from Government. The compensation related to land acquired by Government, with the amount eventually paid into the advocates’ account running into billions of shillings.
The High Court later established that Government had offered Kemigisa Sh4.5 billion for the land. Court records showed that Sh3.358 billion was remitted to the account of Hall and Partners Advocates in November 2008, while another Sh12.4 million was subsequently remitted. Kemigisa later complained that she had not received all the money.
She filed Civil Suit No. 261 of 2010 against Kasango, seeking Sh3.831 billion, which she said had been paid through her lawyer but had not been remitted to her. The dispute subsequently developed into both a civil and criminal case. In March 2013, Kemigisa appeared before Buganda Road Court and testified against Kasango. She told court that she had instructed him to recover Sh4.5 billion arising from the sale of 11 parcels of land in Fort Portal to Government.
She said Kasango had remitted only slightly more than Sh1 billion to her and had failed to account for the balance. Kasango denied wrongdoing and maintained that he had spent substantial sums of his own money on behalf of the Queen Mother. Among the issues raised in the litigation was money allegedly spent towards acquiring a house for Kemigisa in Munyonyo. Kasango claimed he had paid Sh750 million towards the property.
However, the High Court later found inconsistencies in his account of the payments and rejected his claim that the money used for the purchase of the house came from funds he had received from Government on behalf of Kemigisa.
The court battles intensify
The civil proceedings were accompanied by criminal charges against Kasango. In 2015, he was acquitted by the Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s Court on charges that included forgery, uttering a false document and stealing by agent. The prosecution appealed. In May 2016, High Court Judge Elizabeth Kabanda overturned the acquittal on two of the charges, convicting Kasango of uttering a false document and stealing by agent.
The judge found that Kemigisa had entrusted Kasango with recovering money from Government and that the evidence established the criminal offences. Kasango was subsequently ordered to compensate Kemigisa. In May 2016, Buganda Road Chief Magistrate Jamson Karemani ordered him to pay Sh3 billion and imposed a Sh12 million fine, with imprisonment in default. The case marked a dramatic fall for Kasango, once one of Kampala’s most prominent lawyers.
Kasango and Mwenda
Kasango was also closely associated with Mwenda. The two were business partners and co-founded The Independent magazine, with Mwenda later describing Kasango as his “best friend and brother” following his death. In an emotional tribute published after Kasango’s death in 2021, Mwenda said Kasango died at Murchison Bay Hospital inside Luzira Prison from heart failure at the age of 46. He criticised the circumstances surrounding his friend’s detention and argued that Kasango had not received adequate medical attention.
Kasango had been serving a prison sentence when he died while being transferred from Murchison Bay Prison to Mulago National Referral Hospital. Uganda Prisons confirmed that he had suffered heart-related complications. His imprisonment and death left a lasting impression on Mwenda, who publicly blamed aspects of the justice system for what happened to his friend.
Claims of a deeper personal fallout
The bitterest accounts surrounding the Kemigisa-Kasango dispute go beyond the courtroom. According to people familiar with the long-running conflict, Kasango had claimed that he had incurred personal expenses on behalf of Kemigisa, including payments he said were made for members of her extended family. There have also been allegations about an intimate relationship between Kasango and the Queen Mother. Those claims have been disputed and should not be treated as established facts.
What is beyond dispute, however, is that the relationship between Kasango and Kemigisa deteriorated into a major legal confrontation, with the Queen Mother ultimately obtaining court victories against her former lawyer. The High Court judgment in the civil case ordered recovery of Sh3.831 billion. Even after Kasango’s death, the legal consequences continued. In 2024, the High Court dismissed an application by lawyers who had represented Kemigisa in the civil and criminal proceedings and sought more than Sh1 billion in professional fees. Justice Musa Ssekaana found that the lawyers had not demonstrated sufficient efforts to execute the judgment against Kasango before seeking payment from Kemigisa.
Why the old battle matters now
It is this history that has been invoked by people trying to explain the apparent hostility between Mwenda and sections of the Tooro royal establishment. Supporters of Kemigisa argue that the Queen Mother should not be blamed for Kasango’s subsequent legal troubles. The court proceedings were between Kemigisa and Kasango, and the criminal conviction was ultimately imposed by the Ugandan courts.
But some people close to the kingdom contend that Mwenda has never emotionally separated the Kasango affair from his relationship with the Tooro royal family. An elder familiar with the dispute claimed that Mwenda had never forgiven Kemigisa over the legal troubles that engulfed Kasango. That claim, however, remains an allegation and has not been independently established.
The renewed controversy has now taken a political and cultural dimension because of the succession dispute following King Oyo’s death. Mwenda’s announcement of an alleged successor triggered anger among sections of the Batooro, who questioned the authority under which the purported selection was made.
Charles Kamurasi, the Musuuga of Tooro, subsequently distanced himself from the announcement and dismissed Mwenda’s actions, arguing that the kingdom’s succession process should not be determined through unilateral declarations.
The grandson question
At the heart of the latest controversy is also the question of whether King Oyo’s son could eventually succeed his father. The debate has become increasingly sensitive because the child is a grandson of Queen Mother Best Kemigisa. Some of those challenging Mwenda’s position have therefore linked his opposition to the wider family history involving Kemigisa.
But any claim that Mwenda is opposed to Oyo’s son solely because of his relationship with Kemigisa requires evidence. What can be established is that the old Kasango-Kemigisa dispute created a deep and highly publicised rupture involving people who were once closely connected. Kasango went from being a celebrated Kampala lawyer and Mwenda’s business associate to a convicted prisoner who died in Luzira. Kemigisa emerged from the dispute with court judgments in her favour.
More than a decade later, the names of the same protagonists have returned to public debate as Tooro grapples with succession. The challenge now is separating the documented history from the allegations and personal interpretations that have accompanied the latest royal controversy.
For Tooro, the succession question is bigger than the personalities involved. It concerns the legitimacy of the process through which the next Omukama will be identified and the unity of a kingdom already shaken by the death of King Oyo. The Kasango-Kemigisa affair remains part of that complicated history — but whether it explains today’s confrontation between Mwenda and the royal establishment is a question that ultimately requires evidence, not speculation.
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