Chief Paul Rukeribuga

• Leadership over Bufumbira: Rukeribuga ruled Bufumbira County during the mid-20th century. He succeeded Chief Gicyamwa and preceded Chief Mbareba (who took over around 1962). 

• Relations with the Batwa: Historical accounts note that Chief Rukeribuga maintained a close and positive relationship with the indigenous Batwa people of the area. An avid hunter, he frequently went into the forests alongside the Batwa, who reportedly highly respected and enjoyed his local leadership. 

• Colonial Recognition: Alongside other notable figures of Kigezi’s administration like Paul Kakwenza and Festo Ngologoza, Chief Paul Rukeribuga received high-ranking honors and badges of service from the British colonial administration in 1953 for his governance.

• Legacy: Today, intellectual and local figures frequently cite Rukeribuga alongside other historical Banyakigezi giants—such as Katuregye, Ngorogoza, and Mukombe—as iconic symbols of unified, community-first leadership in Kisoro and Kigezi history. In modern Kisoro Municipality, a prominent neighborhood bears his name (Rukeribuga) in honor of his historical footprints.

Family and Children

While Chief Paul Rukeribuga’s administrative career and broad impact on Bufumbira are documented in Kigezi’s colonial-era archives, the exhaustive, granular list of all his individual wives, children, and properties belongs heavily to the unrecorded oral history and private family genealogy of the Bafumbira people. We will get time and visit his family. Like many high-ranking, influential African rulers and Saza Chiefs of his generation (mid-20th century), Chief Rukeribuga practiced polygamy, which was central to consolidating regional alliances, managing vast lands, and demonstrating societal stature. The most publicly documented child is his trailblazing daughter, Agatha Rukeribuga, who famously moved to eastern Uganda in the late 1960s and established herself as a foundational tourism entrepreneur at the Source of the River Nile in Jinja. We will dig deeper and get more about this marvelous chief.