The Ugandan government is working urgently to help resolve a fierce royal succession conflict within the Tooro Kingdom following the death of monarch Oyo Nyimba at the age of 34.
King Oyo, who was crowned in 1995 at the age of three, was known as the world’s “youngest king”.
He died in August after suffering from an illness which was kept hidden from the public.
He is scheduled to be buried during a formal ceremony on Saturday, with thousands of mourners and visiting dignitaries in attendance.
But the proceedings cannot go ahead until an agreement is reached regarding his successor, a kingdom spokesperson said.
The conflict erupted on Wednesday when a royal clan succession panel named Oyo's cousin, Edward Rukidi Kijanangoma, as the next king.
Mr Kijanangoma works as an editor and news anchor for state broadcaster UBC.
The choice provoked outrage from the late ruler's immediate family, particularly his mother and sister, who said that his son, who has not been publicly named, should inherit the royal throne.
Uganda operates as a constitutional republic where executive authority belongs to an elected head of state, but several ancient pre-colonial monarchies remain active, serving as symbols of identity and tradition and wielding substantial influence.
Besides the throne, the new king will also inherit a considerable royal estate including swathes of land and sizeable cash payouts and other gifts from the central government on an ongoing basis.
"There are meetings going on between the royal family and the royal clan, so all sides involved are talking," Tooro Kingdom spokesperson Vincent Mugume said.
"The (central) government is also involved in the talks."
Mr Mugume said that he kingdom must have a new king by the time of burial to perform rituals that are reserved for the successor monarch.
He declined to speculate on what would happen should the talks not reach a solution.
Another source with knowledge of the matter also said that meetings had been under way since Wednesday and that the government was putting pressure on Oyo's mother, Queen Kemigisa, to embrace the succession committee's decision.
The government has made no public comment about the talks.
Oyo's sister, Princess Ruth Komuntale, said this week that her brother's will indicated that his son should succeed him. The queen mother has also denounced a "self-appointed group of clan members" for selecting a new king, despite having had the will read to them hours earlier.
King Oyo, a UN goodwill ambassador who championed the fight against HIV and AIDS, never married and was not known to have any children.
Andrew Mwenda, a prominent Ugandan journalist and relative of the royal family, wrote on X on Thursday that Oyo's family had not been able to produce a photo of the purported son and had declined to disclose details about the family of the boy's mother.
He added that, in Tooro, a king's son could only succeed him if he were born to a queen officially married to the king.
Mr Kijanangoma, the committee's chosen successor, has been described by colleagues as unpretentious and reserved.
"He was very humble, down to earth ... he was a prince but he didn't carry that aura of a prince, you know, someone who is a snob to others, who feels so special," Denis Sigoa, a business editor at UBC, told private broadcaster NTV Uganda on Thursday.
Meanwhile, thousands of mourners, some dressed in traditional white tunics and bark cloth, have been arriving in Fort Portal, Tooro's capital, this week to pay their respects to the body of the late king and to attend the burial.
