A goalkeeper for a non-league London football team has been selected as the new monarch of the Tooro Kingdom in Uganda. George Desmond Kamurasi, 36, who captains the SE Dons in Bexleyheath, south-east London, was chosen by a 21-member committee to lead the kingdom following the death of his cousin, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV.
King Oyo passed away in the United States on August 27 while undergoing treatment for cancer. He had ascended to the throne of the Ugandan Kingdom, which has a population of 800,000, at the age of three in 1995, becoming the youngest reigning monarch at the time. Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and the nation's Chief of Defence Forces General Muhoozi Kainerugaba have reportedly endorsed Kamurasi's selection.
Kamurasi, a British national who lives in the UK with his wife and son, has expressed uncertainty about his readiness for the role and appears reluctant to leave his home country to assume the throne. The selection has been met with a mixed reception within Uganda; some are reportedly enthusiastic about Kamurasi's potential leadership, while others question the suitability of a British national to rule the kingdom.
A formal declaration of the new king is anticipated as early as the following week. The body of the late King Oyo arrived in Uganda on Friday, with his burial scheduled for September 12. President Museveni was among those who received the casket at Entebbe international airport, draping it with the Ugandan and Tooro Kingdom flags before it was transported by military helicopter to the kingdom for official ceremonies.
There is a possibility that the newly selected king may miss the funeral proceedings if they conflict with a football fixture for his team, SE Dons, which competes in the ninth division of English football.