Circumstances surrounding the death of Rwanda’s possibly last King are related to kidney disease and hypertension. He was on a sports program to help him reduce weight before he succumbed to the diagnosed diseases.
His Majesty was born in 1936 and became King of Rwanda in 1959 and fled the country in 1961 when a Hutu majority sought Independence from the Kingdom thus exiling him when he had traveled for a meeting in Kinshasa, then Zaire.
King Kigeli was born to King Yuhi V Musinga and Queen Mukashema in Kamembe the Western Province in Rwanda.
King Yuhi V Musinga died in DR.Congo formerly Zaire in 1944 after he was Belgians forced him into exile, then Kigeli was only 8 years old. His son Rudahigwa, the elder brother to King Kigeli was then made his successor and named Mutara III. King Rudahigwa was electrocuted in 1959 in Burundi by the colonial loyalists when he refused to sign a treaty that would empower the Republic over the Kingdom. Ndahindurwa at the age of 23 years was inducted and named Kigeli V.
In 1961 King Kigeli V was also forced to exile when he had to meet the then UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in Zaire by the Kamarampaka elections that sought the Republic led by Mboneyumutwa which would end the Kingdom.
King Kigeli V attended secondary school at Groupe Soclaire Astrida now called Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare and continued his studies in Nyangezi in Zaire. He was baptized Jean Baptiste.
When he was ousted by the Kamarampaka majority loyalists in 1961, Kigeli V fled Zaire to Burundi, then to Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya from where he flew to the United State, a country that granted him citizenship in 1992 and in which he settled in the Oakton home.
On many occasions it was said that Kigeli V would return to Rwanda anytime like any other Kings and be resettled in Huye the Kings’ home and his spokesperson Boniface Bengize noted that it would be an official ceremony made public by media in public not to be handled like a tyrant. He would be given a salary, vehicle, and things that are allowed him under the Rwanda law the entitles rights to former leaders.
Even President Paul Kagame welcomed his return.
It is not clear whether he will be buried in Rwanda or the United States of America.
The last King has left no prince, princess or queen to be the heirs of the Rwanda Kingdom.
