President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni's two big political rivals have returned from exile and sparked major new challenges to the President and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). First came 80-year-old Apollo Milton Obote, leader of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC). Forty-three years and a day after becoming Uganda's independence leader, Obote died of kidney failure in South Africa. He arrived at Entebbe airport in a casket draped with the Ugandan flag. Even Milton Obote's own supporters were taken aback by the impact of his death and funeral. Firstly, against expectations and his own political inclinations, Museveni ordered a state funeral. Then the government reversed its decision not to declare a public holiday on the day of the funeral. It is a clear sign that Museveni has started to calculate his political moves much more carefully before the March elections (AC Vol 46 No 19).