The last surviving daughter of King Yuhi Musinga, Speciose Mukabayojo, has passed away at the age of 93.
Albert Rudatsimburwa, a member of her extended family, confirmed the news to IGIHE, saying that she died in Nairobi, Kenya.
“She passed away in Nairobi yesterday evening — that’s when I found out. We used to talk often over the phone. She last visited Rwanda when she came for the funeral of her brother, King Kigeli,” said Rudatsimburwa.
He explained that Mukabayojo was a close relative:
“The sister of King Musinga was my grandmother.”
Mukabayojo was among the children who went into exile with King Musinga when he was banished to Moba, in what is today the Democratic Republic of Congo (then known as Zaire).
King Musinga’s reign was marked by turmoil and hardship in Rwanda’s history, as the core institutions that had upheld the kingdom’s stability were dismantled during his rule.
He was deposed and stripped of his power by the Belgian colonial authorities, who reduced him to a figurehead unable to make any decisions without their approval.
On the morning of November 12, 1931, Charles Voisin, the then Governor of Ruanda-Urundi, visited King Musinga at his palace in Nyanza, giving him 48 hours to pack his belongings and leave the country. He was ordered to surrender Kalinga, the royal drum, along with other royal symbols, to the Belgians, who administered Rwanda under a League of Nations mandate.
On October 14, 1931, a royal entourage left Nyanza, accompanying Musinga, his five wives, nine children, his mother Kanjogera, and other relatives. They were taken to a house prepared for them in Gihundwe, near Kamembe Airport, at a place locally known as “Plane.”
That marked the end of his 36-year reign.
Mutijima Bryon, Rudatsimburwa’s son, who personally knew Mukabayojo, said:
“King Musinga’s daughters crossed into exile with my great-grandfather. They returned after King Rudahigwa had become king.”
Mukabayojo later married Chief Bideri in a ceremony held at Nyanza Palace (Rukari), and together they had six children, including Dieudonné Bideri, who passed away last year.
During the 1959 Revolution, when Tutsis were killed and others forced into exile, Mukabayojo and her family fled to Kenya, where they had lived ever since.
She last visited Rwanda when she came for the funeral of her brother, King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa, who was buried at Mwima, near the coronation site where King Mutara III Rudahigwa, her elder brother, was also laid to rest.
