Princess Speciose Mukabayojo: The passing that closed a royal chapter in Rwanda [PHOTOS]
With the death of Princess Speciose Mukabayojo, Rwanda’s royal generation now lives on through memory, diaspora and shared African history.
The death of Princess Speciose Mukabayojo in Nairobi on the 27 October 2025 has brought a quiet but powerful ending to Rwanda’s royal generation. For many Rwandans and Africans, it feels like a final thread between the old kingdom and the modern republic has been cut.
The death of Princess Speciose Mukabayojo and how she died
Princess Speciose Mukabayojo, the last surviving child of King Yuhi V Musinga, died in a Nairobi hospital at the age of ninety three. Family members told RadioTV10 and Rebero that she passed away in the night of 27 October 2025 after illness linked to advanced age.
She had lived in Kenya for many years and was last seen publicly in 2017 when she travelled to Rwanda for the burial of her brother, King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa, at Mwima in Nyanza, the traditional royal resting place.
Her death leaves no surviving children among the 19 sons and daughters of King Musinga.
Burial plans and what they mean for the Rwanda monarchy
According to an official statement from the family, Princess Mukabayojo will be buried in Rwanda on 29 November 2025. She will rest near her late husband, Benoit Bideri, and her mother, Agnes Mujawingoma.
Reports say the Government of Rwanda is supporting the funeral arrangements, a significant gesture in a country that became a republic in 1961 and has often kept royal history at arm’s length.
Bringing her home symbolically reconnects the monarchy’s last daughter with the soil that shaped her, and quietly acknowledges the royal line in Rwanda’s national story.
How the royal family went into diaspora
King Yuhi V Musinga was deposed by Belgian authorities in 1931 and exiled first inside Rwanda, then to Moba in present day DR Congo, where he died in 1944.
Some of his children, including young Speciose, left with him or later followed relatives into exile. After the 1959 revolution and anti Tutsi violence, King Kigeli V and many members of the royal family fled through several countries, including Burundi, Tanzania, DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya and eventually the United States.
Princess Mukabayojo settled in Kenya, where she lived most of her adult life and raised six children, becoming part of a wider royal and Rwandan diaspora spread across Africa and beyond.
What the passing of Princess Speciose Mukabayojo means for Rwanda and Africa
With her death, there is no longer a living child of a ruling Rwandan monarch. The Rwanda monarchy now survives in memory, archives and scattered descendants rather than in direct heirs who remember palace life.
For Rwandans, it is a moment to reflect on a journey from kingdom, through colonial disruption and exile, into a republic still wrestling with its past.
For Africans, including South Africans watching from near and far, it is a reminder that our histories of monarchy, colonialism and diaspora are deeply connected.