The Leader of the Opposition appoints and heads an alternative shadow cabinet whose duty it is to challenge and influence governmental actions and legislation on the floor of Parliament.

So, after the April 1961 elections which enabled the Legco to be transformed into the "National Assembly" and the Democratic Party (DP) to get into power, Obote became the first Ugandan Leader of the Opposition.

[4] Unfortunately, two months later, the DP lost power in the April 1962 elections which Obote's UPC won with the assistance of Kabaka Yekka (KY) Party in Buganda.

The Leader of the Opposition was Basil Kiiza Bataringaya, the then Secretary General of DP, hailing from Western Uganda in what was then known as Bushenyi District.

Among other things, the Opposition put up a spirited fight against the harsh detention laws which had been imposed on the country, emerging corruption in the Obote regime and development towards one party rule.

The Parliament of Uganda effectively ceased to function for 8 years when General Idi Amin had seized power in a coup d'état in January 1971.

[6] Following the overthrow of the Amin regime in April 1979 by Tanzanian troops and some Ugandan exiles, Parliament was restored under the name 'National Consultative Council (NCC)' whose responsibilities not only included enacting new laws for the country, but also supervising the executive systematically in order to prevent the reappearance of dictatorial rule.

Instead it operated as a multi-party umbrella organisation under Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) which sought to reach consensus on each issue on non-ideological and non-party basis.

The Opposition vociferously condemned the escalation of Uganda's external debt, general insecurity and violation of basic human rights of ordinary Ugandans.

Again in July 1985, Milton Obote and his second UPC government were overthrown in a military coup led by General Tito Okello Lutwa who also closed Parliament.

Coming in as MP for Agago County, Prof. Latigo led the Opposition in the House at a time when politicians in Uganda were still suffering a strong hangover of the Movement System in which members operated on individual merit.

After the February 2011 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, Nathan Nandala Mafabi became the seventh Leader of the Opposition, six years after the return of multiparty politics under Museveni's regime.