Uganda: Desperate Dancing

Packed clubs and bars across Kampala did a roaring trade at the turn of the year with Ugandans celebrating the city’s reputation as the party capital of east Africa. Those living in Britain, the United States and Canada were drawn home in record numbers to dance the holidays away. It seemed hard to believe that this country is, as some say, now balanced on a knife edge approaching what is expected to be the most desperately fought election in its history. The only clue to the end of the era lay in the armoured personnel carriers slinking through the streets, and the soldiers with gas masks taking up position on street corners.