Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere charged with murder at Jinja Chief Magistrates Court.
Mumbere was brought to court under tight security inside and on the streets around the facility in the Jinja for a brief hearing before Jinja Chief Magistrate, John Francis Kaggwa and the controversial King was remanded until the 13th of December.
He was arrested in connection to a spate of attacks on several security installations in Kasese over the past weeks.
Records at Kasese Police Station show that 55 people were killed on Saturday among them 14 police officers and 44 civilians believed to be royal guards. Another 46 royal guards were killed when the army launched an offensive on the palace of Mumbere.
Mumbere has distanced himself from the cause. However, the authorities accuse his royal guards of training in the mountains alongside separatist militia forces to attack government installations.
He rules over a traditional monarchy around the mountains of Rwenzori – 340km (210 miles) west of the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
His subjects – the Bakonzo – straddle both Uganda and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and tension has been high in the kingdom in recent years.
Land disputes have led to bitter divisions over plans to divide up Kasese – one of the seven districts in the Rwenzori region, she says.
Now King Charles Mumbere and some of his supporters have been accused of launching a secessionist movement to create a new republic known as Yiira.
The authorities blame a recent spate of attacks on security installations in the area on this new movement.
The kingdom has denied any links to the “secessionist group”.
Charles Mumbere was crowned king of the Rwenzururu kingdom in 2009, after living and working in a US nursing home for many years.
By Hakim Mutesasira
