{She could visit the dad, chat and confer. She was a princess that neither enjoyed royal privileges nor the recognition. She only lived in the shadow of her would-be self, a would-be princess that never was. She was supposed to be a princess of Rwanda, having been born to the pleasures and leisure of royalty, daughter to King Kigeli V Nndahindurwa.}
IGIHE has learnt that King Kigeli V had a daughter who used to visit him where he lived in the United States. The princess’s presence was kept under wraps because in the Rwanda culture, a king is not allowed to sire princes and princesses outside the geographical boundaries of the kingdom.
One of sources who talked to IGIHE on condition of anonymity has said that Kigeli V had a daughter and her mother who both attended his burial.
It is said that the said King’s daughter was born in 1975 in Uganda where Kigeli had sought refuge.
IGIHE has learnt that the princess, called Jackie, has four children, two boys and two girls, grandchildren of Kigeli V Ndahindurwa. Jackie’s royal Kinyarwanda name has not been established by IGIHE.
According to sources, these children study in England and would accompany their mother to visit their grandfather in America.
“They used to visit King Kigeli V in America and his daughter has inherited the Kingdom’s ring. All relatives know the daughter who was present at the funeral of late King Kigeli V. She is also in the testaments of the King’s inheritance though Benzigye retained the documents,” an anonymous source has told IGIHE.
“In 2010, the daughter went to visit the King in America and received a ring as a gift which she often wears. They often chatted,” said the source.
It was a taboo in Rwandan culture for a King to get married overseas.
King Kigeli V Ndahindurwa, Rwanda’s last monarch breathed his last in the United States on 16th October 2016. His demise was followed by contestations among relatives in Rwanda and US over where he should be buried till the court of Virginia, USA, ruled in January 2017 that the body had to be brought back to Rwanda for burial.
He was buried on Sunday 15th January 2017 on Mwima hillock of Nyanza in same cemetery where his elder brother King Mutara III Rudahigwa was buried.
During his funeral ceremonies, King Kigeli V was lauded for manifesting bravery while alive along with relatives who strived for the body to be repatriated to Rwanda for burial.
Before King Kigeli V death and after information circulated through the grapevine that he had beget a child but no one among his relatives confirmed it neither before nor at funerals in Nyanza.
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