{UAH} CONDOLENCE MESSAGE TO THE PEOPLE OF RWANDA.

The late King Kigeri of Rwanda was very close to our family ever since he was granted asylum in Uganda by President Amin in the early 70's. They communicated regularly by phone even as we were in Saudi Arabia.
In African culture a fathers close friends become part of his family's circle of elders. Therefore we the Amin family pay special respects to the late King.
As King Kigeri V was quietly laid to rest yesterday, it was heart-warming to hear that solidarity and condolences were sent from Uganda's Kings whose officials were also present at the funeral.
The Buganda, Tooro, and Ankole Kingdoms among other cultural leaders, are said to have sent prominent delegations with their messages read to the public in attendance.
Also thousands of mourners reportedly walked the two kilometer's from the King's Palace museum to "Mwima ya Nyanza" where the late King was first crowned, and which is also where he has been laid to rest.
Unfortunately there was no state funeral for King Kigeri as we President Idi Amin's family had called for in an earlier statement when the late Monarch's death was first announced. It would have been befitting to hold an official state funeral like the one my father personally decreed for the late King of Buganda Sir Edward Muteesa in 1971. This was after the King had passed away two years earlier while exiled abroad by Milton Obote, who after giving selfish orders to attack the Kings Lubiri palace, he Obote declared himself the new president.
However, an opportunity for more national healing was missed yesterday. The official recognition of the Kingdom by the Rwandan state is still a quest that needs an open national debate by its people.
The priests, the mourners and the funeral workers did their difficult sad but meaningful part in bidding him fairwell as respectably as was possible.
Our prayers for King Kigeri's successor and also for his people both in their country and those elsewhere around the world.

May his soul rest in peace.

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