King Oyo made international headlines in 1995 when he ascended the throne as a three-year-old toddler, earning a place in history as the world’s youngest reigning monarch. He spent over three decades serving as the cultural heart of western Uganda. As royal leaders prepare to name his successor, the next ruler inherits an ancient monarchy struggling with a serious physical toll: its vast real estate is in severe disrepair.
Across the kingdom, historical properties have fallen into structural decay over the years.
Secondary royal residences in Ngezi, Rwengoma, and Kabahango suffer from crumbling ceilings, leaking roofs, overgrown yards, and interior rooms filled with broken chairs and stripped furniture. Even the primary seat at Karuziika, renovated two decades ago with funding from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, sits with peeling paint, wall cracks, and missing furnishings due to long stretches of disuse.
Sacred cultural landmarks like the Karambi Royal Tombs face similar shortfalls, drawing sharp local criticism over unkept grounds and deteriorating perimeter walls.
To keep these sites functional ahead of major cultural events and royal anniversaries, the monarchy has repeatedly relied on emergency interventions from the military. Engineers from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Engineering Brigade have frequently been deployed to step in, rushing through structural fixes, fresh paint, and site clearing to make the main palace usable for official gatherings.
This persistent physical decay stems from a restrictive institutional reality. Under Ugandan law, traditional leaders serve strictly cultural and ceremonial roles and lack tax-raising authority. This leaves the monarchy without a consistent, self-sustaining revenue stream to maintain large historical estates – except for the Buganda kingdom that has vast land and markets from which it gets fees.
As the Babiito royals prepare to crown the next monarch, repairing and maintaining these physical assets will sit high on the administrative agenda. Restoring the palaces to a state of permanent dignity will require the incoming king to secure dedicated maintenance funding and modernise how the kingdom manages its heritage sites, and have some of Oyo’s charisma to get people to write cheques.
The author Charles Nyongo Obo is a senior journalist and Curator of the Wall of Great Africans
