He ascended the throne after the death of his brother, Kabaka Jjunju Sendegeya, whom Semakookiro defeated and killed in the Battle of Kiwawu in 1797.
[1] He is recorded to have married fifteen (15) wives:[1] The children of Kabaka Semakookiro included the following: He increased the growth of Mituba (Ficus natalensis) trees and production of Barkcloth in Buganda.
Kabaka Semakookiro died from an affliction, in old age at the Jjunju Palace at Kasangati, in Kyaddondo County.
The precautionary measures he had taken to preserve his throne enabled him to be the first king in more than a century to die a natural death.
If nineteenth-century kings of Buganda wielded enormous despotic powers as indeed they did, part of the credit must be given to Semakokiro."