The royal family in Rwanda has named Prince Emmanuel Bushaiyija as the new King of Banyarwanda.
To be known by his royal names King Yuhi VI, the new King is the son of Prince Theoneste Bushayija and grandson of King Yuhi V Musinga. He now succeeds Kigeli V Ndahindurwa, who ascended the throne in 1959.
Yuhi VI had his formative years in Uganda before moving to Kenya and later returning to Rwanda in 1994 after the Genocide. In 2000 the new king migrated to the United Kingdom, where he lives with his wife and two children.
Aged 57, King Yuhi VI is the successor to King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa, who passed away on October 16, 2016 in the United States.
After a protracted family misunderstanding over where to inter the King’s remains, a court in Virginia, USA, ordered that the body be returned to Rwanda for burial.
Subsequent to the court ruling, the King’s remains were yesterday returned to Rwanda and will be laid to rest at his former palace in Nyanza.
By press time it was not possible to establish when the body will be laid to rest and whether the deceased King will be accorded a State Funeral by the Rwanda government.
Sources say that before his death King Kigeli had previously expressed the desire to return home but the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) government under President Paul Kagame insisted he was only free to return home as an ‘ordinary citizen’, something that reportedly did not go down well with the monarch, effectively stopping him from returning to Rwanda.
