Kabalega of Bunyoro

In 1869, Omukama Kamurasi Kyebambe IV died and two of the legitimate royal candidates — Kabalega and Kabigumire could not agree on who should be his successor.

[1] Normally, such wars to determine a legitimate successor were supposed to be brief and decisive until only one claimant to the throne was left alive.

[2] However, sometimes these conflicts dragged on for years, destabilising all of society and leading to famines, massacres and refugee crises.

[1] In this case, the clan leaders and the dead king's brother, Prince Nyaika, were so tired of Kabalega and Kabigumire's constant fighting that they ordered Kabalega, who had the upper hand, to respect Bunyoro's laws of succession and just-war conventions and end the war.

At the height of the British offensive on his empire, Kabalega went into hiding in Acholi under the protection of Chief Awich Abok of Payira.