Under the British, Uganda's economic activity was mostly undertaken by a large group of Indian immigrants who operated many of the businesses and constituted the majority of the colony's merchants.
For example, Milton Obote's strength lay among his Langi kin in northern Uganda; George Magezi represented the local interests of his Bunyoro compatriots; Grace S.K.
Ibingira's strength was in the Ankole; and Felix Onama was the northern leader of the largely neglected West Nile District in the north-west corner of Uganda.
Not to be outdone, the Iteso people, who had never recognized a precolonial king, claimed the title kingoo for Teso District's political boss, Cuthbert Joseph Obwangor.
Despite these separatist pressures, Obote's long-term goal was to build a strong central government at the expense of entrenched local interests, especially those of Buganda.
Obote selected a popular junior officer with minimal education, Idi Amin Dada, and promoted him rapidly through the ranks as a personal protégé.
The combination of patronage offers and the promise of future rewards within the ruling coalition gradually thinned opposition party ranks, as members of parliament crossed the floor to join the government benches.
After two years of independence, Obote finally acquired enough votes to give the UPC a majority and free himself of the KY coalition.
The vote demonstrated an overwhelming desire by residents in the counties annexed to Buganda in 1900 to be restored to their historic Bunyoro allegiance, which was duly enacted by the new UPC majority despite KY opposition.
The Obote regime was to become associated with food shortage, corruption, and the terrorizing, harassing, and torturing of Ugandans, particularly Indian traders.
Obote rivals questioned the incident, and it emerged that the prime minister and a handful of close associates had used Colonel Amin and units of the Uganda Army to intervene in the neighbouring Congo Crisis.
Former supporters of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, led by a "General Olenga," opposed the American-backed government and were attempting to lead the Eastern Province into secession.
This claim appeared to be supported by the fact that in mid-1965, a seventy-five-ton shipment of Chinese weapons was intercepted by the Kenyan government as it was being moved from Tanzania to Uganda.
Instead, Obote turned to Idi Amin and the army, and, in effect, carried out a coup d'état against his own government in order to stay in power.
By the time the Battle of Mengo Hill resulted in the palace being overrun, the kabaka had taken advantage of a cloudburst to exit over the rear wall.
Buganda was divided into four districts and ruled through martial law, a forerunner of the military domination over the civilian population that all of Uganda would experience after 1971.
On the home front, Obote issued the "Common Man's Charter," echoed the call for African socialism by Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, and proclaimed a "move to the left" to signal new efforts to consolidate power.
His concerns were well founded; in December 1969 he was wounded in an assassination attempt and narrowly escaped more serious injury when a grenade thrown near him failed to explode.
A second attempt was made on Obote's life when his motorcade was ambushed later that year, but the vice-president's car was mistakenly riddled with bullets.
Obote began to recruit more Acholi and Langi troops, and he accelerated their promotions to counter the large numbers of soldiers from Amin's home, which was then known as West Nile District.
Amin, who at times inspected his troops wearing an outsized sport shirt with Obote's face across the front and back, protested his loyalty.
But in October 1970, Amin was placed under temporary house arrest while investigators looked into his army expenditures, reportedly several million dollars over budget.