A couple of weeks ago we told you about Uganda’s second-most prominent monarch, the 22-year old King Oyo of Tooro, who decided to fast because his ancient, multi-ethnic kingdom is being subdivided into smaller kingdoms.

Maybe we spoke too soon. A week later, mayhem erupted over those subdivisions and about a hundred people lay dead, massacred in a day or two of bloodletting between two small kingdoms created in recent years, long after the restoration of the Tooro kingdom 20 years ago.

Most Christians today have heard of an “Esther Fast” – that is doing three days without touching a morsel of food or a drop of water in emulation of Queen Esther in the Old Testament who saved her people in that way from genocide.

But while Esther’s fast prevented the massacre of the Jews then, it seems King Oyo’s fast was met with the opposite results — his people died by the scores after he decided to fast. So what went wrong?

Whatever happened, this is a very serious matter because nearly a hundred people have been murdered in a dispute between Basongora and Bakonjo, two of the several ethnic groups in the ancient Tooro kingdom.

And it happened during the holy month of Ramadan. So there should be no relaxation. The king must continue with the fast and the Muslims of Uganda should dedicate this Ramadan to prevention of further bloodshed in Tooro.

It is not every day that a 22-year old opts to forgo food for any length of time.  Several royals are said to have joined the king in the fast. I think every Mutooro man, woman or child should join in the fast.

In fact all other Ugandans should join the king’s fast. After all, in the clashes, non-Batooro policemen and soldiers also perished.

And remember, over a third of Uganda’s population belongs to old kingdoms and chiefdoms that could suffer the same fate as Tooro if small new “kingdoms” are created in them. It happened in the bigger kingdom of Buganda when in 2009 dozens died in unrest caused by similar subdivisions.

Twenty years ago, only three ancient kingdoms had been restored because people still cherished them. A fourth not-so ancient kingdom was restored in Busoga region and has been hit by disputes over who should sit on the throne for several years. A fourth ancient kingdom of Ankole was not restored because many Banyankole did not like it.

It would appear therefore that bloodshed can be averted by simply not creating new small kingdoms. Then there would be no need for royals to starve themselves over subdivisions of their ancient kingdoms.