Part of this article was published in yesterday's Daily Monitor.

The clique [in Busoga's political elite] would then isolate President Museveni from any contact with any person from the region other than through them as the undisputed powerbrokers of Busoga! The scheme worked, Kivejinja was defeated in the 2001 election as MP for Bugweri and the stage was set for the 2002 local government election.

It is therefore necessary to examine in detail how and why this scheme succeeded.

When, former President Dr Apollo Milton Obote parted with Nadiope, the void of leadership in Busoga was filled by Shaban Nkuutu. He was the National Chairman of UPC. He patronised and helped promote many families in his constituency. As a result, it is only in Bugweri and Bukhooli counties (his former combined constituency) that one is sure of finding a committed UPC diehard to this day. Hence the force of Patrick Mwondha in Bukooli North.

But, it is in this same house that opposition to UPC in Busoga started. Like Obote was adopted as a son in this house, so was Museveni in 1980 when campaigning on the Uganda People's Movement ticket. The larger family has therefore been split between UPC and today's NRM. There is always an opponent for the Bugweri seat in opposing the NRM. This time the person for the job of taking out Kivejinja fell on a young lawyer, Abdu Katuntu.

Katuntu is the son of Eriasa Mulawa a protégé of Shaban Nkutu. Mulaawa was also a former spy in the National Security Agency (Nasa) during the UPC second regime. Katuntu's father was a formidable personality who welded the gun at the head of a reckless UPC group whose word was law in the Bugweri county.

After his law studies, Katuntu practiced in the law firm of Kadaga and Co. Advocates before establishing his own. He was talked into taking on the mantle of UPC leadership in Bugweri by the UPC diehards of this former ruling house and the late Basoga-Nsadhu, Kazibwe and Kadaga. The package was to present Katuntu as a Movementist with traditional UPC support. He could then hoodwink even disgruntled NRM supporters into supporting his bid.

The trick worked. Kivejinja was again subjected to isolation from within his own NRM. (The first one was when he resigned in 1997 from his ministerial post over the 2,000 litres of fuel he obtained from Uganda Railways for the people of Pallisa to work on their roads).

The new NRM leaders in the region, bent on establishing their own hold on the population by uprooting the founding pillar of the NRM, spearheaded the joint enterprise to its logical conclusion.

The scheming group galvanised and captivated the entire Iganga civil service and unsuspecting Utoda to support their plot. The argument was with the founding pillar of the NRM out, the leadership of the region would have a new setting.

In the relatively peaceful district of Jinja, the old guard, Sam Muwumba, chose not to defend his seat as chairman. That provided another chance to consolidate power for the emerging leadership. In the new district of Bugiri, the clique could not take out Siraj Lyavaala. He was ahead of their schemes. Mayuge, which comprised of Bunya County and was Bageya's stronghold in the previous election, was cut off of Iganga and made a new district.

To take out Bageya, was a tested NRM cadre and protégé of Kazibwe in an election riddled with intrigue and maneuvre.

In Kamuli, the chieftainancy saw no need to camouflage the coup via election maneuvres. There was no election. They allowed Kawugu to register with a new recruit, Baligeya (RIP), and then caused Kawugu's disqualification on a technicality at the last minute for lack of an "A-level equivalent". As a result, Baligeya (RIP) was elected unopposed.

The former Town Clerk of Iganga, Ngobi Gume took over from Muwumba in Jinja. This set the stage for another round of regimes in the region. These regimes paid their full loyalty to their 'patron saints' with little regard to the ordinary people who since colonialism have been treated brazenly with contempt as non-entities by those who have exercised power over them. (To be continued)

The writer is a member of the former ruling dynastic house of Bugweri and currently based in Washington, USA.

See the first part of this article