One man who is enjoying the ongoing campaigns in Uganda is Dr Kizza Besigye, the perennial runner-up in the country’s presidential elections.

The contest between Besigye and perennial winner President Yoweri Museveni has always been anything but civil. But now they don’t seem to be that terribly angry at each other.

The campaign trail looks like a pleasure excursion for Besigye. The outdoor physical activity seems to be doing the previously angry retired army colonel a lot of good — he has been pushing trucks stuck in the muddy roads along the campaign trail and his gumboots are ever ready in his car for this.

Then whenever he stops to “greet voters” in small rural trading centres, he bends down from his open car roof to collect hundreds of small bank notes as the peasants “contribute some fuel” for him to carry on. At one point, TV cameras caught a poor fellow who had no money but only an orange to offer Besigye, who received it happily.

In one small eastern town, citizens laid out their Sunday best clothes on the ground for him to walk on. Then they got out donkeys for him to ride into the town on. Remember the triumphant entry into Jerusalem?

And whenever Besigye climbs the platform to address the rallies, the man starts dancing to music like it is his last dance. Other candidates also dance but with Besigye, you can see the dance is coming from his heart.

Besigye also seems to have changed his diet. The man who many of us believed eats live safari ants for breakfast must have changed to harmless cereal or fruit. How else do you explain his perpetual jovial mood? Gone is the angry KB whom people used to accuse of plotting revenge against his rivals should he unseat them from power.

He still talks of the failures of government but these days, he portrays his rivals as funny rather than evil – and he laughs at them.

So why has the election stopped being a life and death matter for Besigye? Where has the bitterness gone? Is it the emergence of Amama Mbabazi, a man who until a year or two ago was strongly believed to be the incumbent’s closest confidant, as a new rival and contestant for President Museveni’s job?

While Besigye freely broke ranks and quit Museveni’s team 16 years ago, Mbabazi was pushed out. Mbabazi actually insists he is still a member of the ruling NRM, of which he was the longest serving secretary general.

The system regards Mbabazi as a traitor who coveted Museveni’s job. Besigye is regarded as a clear, unpretentious opponent.

So is Besigye breathing more easily now knowing that there is somebody whom the system today loathes ten times more deeply than him? If NRM were the one allocating places in hell, they would surely reserve the hottest spot for Mbabazi, not Besigye.

NRM is the most powerful organisation in Uganda today, so whomever it hates most should be most afraid. As last week’s presidential candidates’ debate was ending, Besigye signed out by bringing his campaign jig onto the solemn stage.

“I promise that in a very short time every Ugandan will be walking with a swagger,” he said as he adopted a cocky teenager pose.