The year 2005 has probably been the most turbulent that Ugandans have ever experienced in times of peace. It has been a year with little to smile about.

Although the nation was united in celebration of Dorcas Inzikuru's breaking the country's first world track record for 33 years in the women's 3,000 metres steeplechase, the episode ended badly a few months later when the 'golden girl' fainted apparently from hunger and malnourishment after a training session. She blamed it all on the government not fulfilling the promises it made to her in the heat of excitement as she was being received in honour during a special session of parliament.

It has been a very political year but Uganda's two oldest parties, Uganda Peoples Congress and Democratic Party, are in deep crisis. Hajji Nasser Ntege Sebaggala, who had just returned from several years of study in the United Kingdom, where he went to seek sufficient academic qualification to make his bid for the presidency possible, made moves that split DP down the middle.

Long serving DP chief Dr Paul Ssemogerere, accustomed to winning legal battles against the government, was caught in unfamiliar territory of fighting his longtime ally in the party.

Meanwhile, the UPC wasn't fairing much better. Its exiled leader Dr Milton Obote, in his last days, sacked the committee that had been running the party under James Rwanyarare, replacing it another one by Badru Wegulo. The ensuing disputes are still going on, months after the old man's death.

That demise came on October 10, ending Dr Obote's uninterrupted 45-year reign over the 'party of ideas'. Owing to the sharp words he had been exchanging with President Yoweri Museveni since 1979, observers waited anxiously for the state reaction and actions over the last ceremonies for the man who twice ruled Uganda and died in a South African hospital after living in Lusaka, Zambia for two decades.

The reaction was amusing, starting with 'dividing' the cabinet over whether the man should be returned to Uganda. That was accepted and then there were the costs of the transportation of the body and family from South Africa through Zambia, and other funeral expenses.

It was also agreed that the state would pay. Then there was the issue of a state funeral. After much haggling, that was also accepted, but not the public holiday, at first. Then the public holiday came up and it was also accepted. The state could have done itself a lot of good PR if it had accepted or indeed offered all these things from the start.

But in times of death people tend to be devastated and may not act in a cool headed manner. That is what happened when Southern Sudan leader John Garang died in President Museveni's helicopter which crashed as he flew back home after a consultative visit in Uganda. Information minister James Nsaba Buturo said President Museveni was devastated.

It transpired that Mr Buturo was the one who was devastated to the extent of misrepresenting the president's emotional state. President Museveni clarified the matter that he was not devastated, as that is not the way revolutionaries react in such situations. The Garang crash was additionally tragic for Uganda as seven crew members of the presidential chopper also perished.

Mr Buturo put his foot in his mouth more than once this year. He declared that a new TV tax had to be enforced and then it was cancelled. He banned a certain prisoner from being discussed in public.

And so on. But about taxes, this year saw the demise of the Graduated Tax. The people who will run the new districts will miss to collect it. More tax cuts have been promised but they still await the definition of 'tonninyira' in shilling terms.

On the morality front, the country performed dismally, with a new company selling sex openly operating and advertising in the city centre. Kampala police chiefs, when queried, said the issue was complicated but they would investigate. Several months later, they are presumably still investigating.

Meanwhile, activists against violence inflicted on women suffered a severe blow when the play 'Vagina Monologues' was banned before it could be staged even once. The problem was apparently in the title and the message was thus never delivered. Most people who had bought tickets did not seek a refund and the activists managed to donate the proceeds from the abortive show to the intended beneficiaries.

The Kingdom of Buganda was a subject of acts that were deemed unpalatable, depending on who was looking at it. First there was the issue of the Kabaka's upkeep allowance. One day, all traditional leaders were called to go to the Ministry of Culture to collect their allowances.

Some small khaki envelopes were being issued by a young lady and some leader sent representatives to pick their cash. But the Baganda could not stomach what they saw as ridicule of the highest order.

Bukedde newspaper published the photo of the envelop labelled 'Ronald Mutebi' containing the Ush5million cheque for the country's largest land owner.

Then came the turn for the Baganda to act in a manner raising eyebrows. The announcement of Dr Obote's death sparked off celebrations in various parts of Buganda. The climax came when the national funeral was being held at Kololo and thousands of Baganda went to Wankulukuku stadium where they danced, and drank in wild celebrations that saw many cows and goats eaten, climaxing with the mock installation of an heir for the country's first independence leader, a dog.

There were other eyebrow-raising public actions. After the graduation of many senior military officers at the new academy of Kimaka, wives/ girlfriends participated in pinning the pips on the promoted officers. It certainly isn't done in most countries of the world. But Uganda is not most countries.

The behaviour of military officers continued to confuse the public, some of it captured on television camera. Like the slaps that shattered the elderly FDC official, retired Major Rubaramira Ruranga.

Maj Ruranga was in a group of FDC supporters who were waiting along Entebbe Road to "thank South African President Thabo Mbeki for keeping Dr Kizza Besigye for four years" when his old friend and commandant of the military police, Lt Col Bugingo came and extended a handshake.

It was, however, followed by a vicious slap and a couple of punches that shattered the old man's spectacled to fragments. The public is still trying to figure out what the whole thing was about and the military has said it is investigating the incident.

One military man who has had things good is Noble Mayombo. Not only was he promoted from colonel to brigadier, he was made the technical head of the Ministry of Defence as its permanent secretary. His cup was already overflowing when another prestigious title was added Ð chairman of the New Vision company which publishes two daily and five weekly titles.

Brig Mayombo joins journalism at a time when publishing is not so easy, where facts sometimes seem stranger than fiction. Like the many photos that must be lying in the New Vision's electronic archives of empty polling stations during the referendum that returned the country to multi-party rule. Fortunately, the Electoral Commission made matters easy by providing the public with a figure of the turn-out, 42 per cent.

Some stories too, can sound stranger than fiction. What would Brig Mayombo have done if the vice president, His Excellency Gilbert Bukenya, had called him and asked him to publish his anguished pleas for sympathy as he was being edged out of office by a gang of mafias in the very same government whose business he heads? Would Brig Mayombo have passed the buck downwards and said correctly it is for the editors to decide, even though the brigadier has said he is excited about finally getting the chance to practice journalism?

Very academic questions. But Bukenya's pleas were not academic at the time they were made. The nation was left baffled why the police does not arrest the mafia members whom the VP swears have stolen so much and built palaces around the city.

What is for sure is that the government is determined to find medicine for those small problems that give the country bad publicity. Some 700,000 pound sterling was sent to a British law firm to polish up the country's image. Then another $1million was also dispatched to CNN to promote the land that is 'gifted by nature'.

And those international stars who thought they could go around playing with the Ugandan president's name also had a taste of Ugandan wrath. An Irish rock star had had the temerity to advise Mr Museveni to retire when calls for the third term were at a climax. For some reason, local activists went to the British High Commission and protested vehemently.

The only foreigners who got away with treating President Museveni less than reverently were the Rwandans. On a trip to Kigali, the Ugandan president chose to travel by road yet his hosts had been expecting him to fly in. So at Katuna border, they chopped his convoy into two, allowing only a few vehicles including his and locking out the longer part of the motorcade.

According to them, Uganda's presidential party had tried to enter their country with more than the six permitted pistols. There were some other details which are now mercifully behind us. For the record, Rwanda was placed on Uganda's list of hostile foreign powers five or more years ago.

On a promising note, the International Criminal Court charged Lord's Resistance Army boss Joseph Kony and four other commanders, issuing arrest warrants for them. The fellows had taken Uganda through another circus of peace talks which they then foiled. But the World Court in the Hague didn't think highly of Uganda either. They ruled unanimously against Uganda for having abused human rights in the Congo and plundered that country's natural resources.

Money matters made headlines in 2005. There was the $1 price that the president attached to the Dairy Corporation. Then the Kenyans wanted to extradite Ugandan construction tycoon Andrew Kasagga 'Zimwe' over some $1million that almost went missing from a Kenyan bank. And a guard transporting Stanbic cash helped himself to Ksh700 million.

But the money talk that was on everyone's lips came all the way from from Geneva in the name of saving Aids patients in Uganda, and ended up in people's private accounts. Suddenly, the name Global Fund became vulgar. Justice James Ogoola is still investigating, trying to figure out where everyone was looking was the most blatant looting was taking place.

Justice Ogoola has had more than global fund headache. When he arrived late for one investigative session, he summed up the country's number one problem thus, "Blame Mr Besigye".

Mr Besigye, whose rightful titles are Dr or Colonel, arrived from a four-year 'residence' in South Africa just in time to beat the voter registration deadline.

He got his name on the voters' roll at Najjanankumbi but instead of resting and waiting for voting day next year, the man went around the country opening roads someone else had been constructing and inspecting other ongoing projects to check if money had been well spent.

These tours, and especially the new gospel according to Dr Besigye, did not endear him to some people. As he was returning to Kampala from the south west, Dr Besigye was nabbed in the longest, noisiest and most dramatic arrest process the country has ever seen.

During that time, the man undergoing arrest spoke on local radio via mobile phone from inside his car. Then followed the dramas of Black Mambas besieging the High Court (the Microsoft spell-check reads Besigye as 'besiege'), Ogoola's condemnation of the 'defilement of the temple of Justice' and his trips "from State House to jail house" trying to hammer out a deal between the state and the suspect. The rest, as they say, is history. Mr, Dr, Col Kizza Besigye got nominated as presidential candidate last month, from prison.

One question though remains unanswered: How many checked shirts does Besigye have? For he kept appearing in courts in the same shirt. Police action intensified as the year drew to a close.

There was a riot at Makerere over fees and anti-riot police went there as required. Then there were Besigye supporters who had to be chased. But more comical were the Baganda elders who had to be caned off the street as they took their letter to the speaker of parliament.

Many kept wondering at the skill needed to cane an old man in a kanzu. You see, in a kanzu it is not easy to tell exactly where to cane, unlike trousers which leave the safely caneable bum clearly defined.

The bataka caning followed the government and Mengo's secret deal in which the Baganda leaders accepted to have the lukiiko elected, instead of being appointed. It later transpired the deal didn't go down well with the rest of the loyalists and the result was a less than respectful attitude President Museveni was shown at Mambo programme of CBS radio station, 'radio yobujjajja'.

Labour issues continued to be sticky. The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) was restructured and scores lost jobs in a massive clean-up of the tax body. The teachers who had had their hopes raised by a promise of a Ush70,000 raise ended up with only a Ush10,000 boost.

There were conflicting reports over the difference, one being that had there been a bigger raise, the country would have been hit by inflation. So the teacher took an unprecedented action and demonstrated in the streets of all Uganda's towns.

One teacher who did not feel like taking a high-paying job was Prof Edward Rugumayo. He declined a posting to Paris as Uganda's ambassador to France.

One high profile job loser was Brig Henry Tumukunde. His wife took a chit to parliament saying he had been ordered to resign. Then later he wrote to the speaker saying that note was not valid.

The speaker chose to abide by the first letter and Brig Tumukunde lost the job, plus the rights and privileges that go with it. As a soldier, he was promptly arrested and continues to answer charges before a military court martial.

Talking of jobs, MPs finally voted to let an qualified Ugandan to be president of the republic for an unlimited number of times. Previously, there had been a limit to two five-year terms.

Jobs, jobs. One man who seemed not so keen of keeping his job was Col Fred Bogere, who abstained from voting on the lifting of term limits. There was some noise about that but it cooled down.

Another man will not be going back to his top job soon. That is Dr Aggrey Kiying, a top Uganda-born Australian heart specialist who came to Uganda to bury his brutally murdered wife, city lawyer Robina Kiyingi, and got arrested on suspicion that he masterminded the killing.

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