FDC leader Kizza Besigye returned home to a rousing welcome by thousands of supporters who thronged the 49- kilometre Entebbe-Kampala highway, forcing his convoy to inch its way to the city in 11 hours for a journey which usually lasts an hour.

He arrived in Kampala at 7:13pm amid heavy gunfire, blasts of a blue liquid spray from water canon and explosions of teargas canisters which intensified the closer the procession got to Kampala.

From the airport, the large contingent of heavily-armed police and army deployed along the route kept beating back the crowds. At least one person was confirmed dead by a government spokesperson. But other reports carried on WBS television last night said military police shot and killed at least five people, including a nine-year-old who died at Zzana Trading Centre.

Daily Monitor was not able to independently verify this report.
Uganda Red Cross secretary Michael Nataka told Daily Monitor they treated and referred two gunshot victims to Mulago Hospital while eight other injured of the 39 they treated were sent to the same hospital.

Among the reported dead was a woman identified as Hadijja Kayiwa who was a worker at Stella Beauty Salon in Kajansi. Another man was shot at Kibuye roundabout as he tried to flee into a nearby house to escape the shooting. WBS television reporter Timothy Sibasi said he filmed some of the shooting.

“I saw the Military Police shoot the five people, including the 9-year-old boy, and police quickly picked their bodies using pick-up trucks,” Mr Sibasi said.

Police spokesperson Judith Nabakoba did not answer our calls but Mr Fred Opolot, the Uganda Media Centre Executive Director, late last evening said, “I have not yet confirmed any figures. I have been trying to get to the security people to help get the right figures but unfortunately I have not succeeded.”

At 1:52pm, five hours after he had landed, Dr Besigye told Daily Monitor that he was very happy because he was with his people, “a people who are demanding their rights.”

When he arrived at the Nsambya Grounds in Kampala, with wife Winnie Byanyima by his side, the opposition leader asked gathered supporters to fight for economic revival by continuing walking to work, starting Monday next week.

“These NRM murderers wanted him dead but God saved him for us, we thank you for the prayers,” Ms Byanyima told the cheering crowds.
Sounding apologetic for having kept them waiting all day, Dr Besigye in his 10-minute speech, thanked the people for showing courage and being peaceful.

“I want you to thank the Kenyans who are our good friends. Their fight shows us that the whole world is behind us,” he said.
“God can’t be on the side of thieves, murderers, and we shall overcome. I want to thank you for the bravery that you have exhibited, showing the world that you have overcome fear. We shall continue walking and they shall go,” he said.

Earlier in the day, scores, including FDC party officials and Democratic Party president Norbert Mao had set out to meet him from the time he stepped off the Kenya Airways plane at 9am, and continued walking alongside his car, notwithstanding the heavy military machinery that was ranged along the highway.

In cases where police and military failed to contain the crowds, they attacked them with whips and intermittently let off volleys of automatic weapons fire to disperse the crowds.

A journalist, working with Sky Magazine, Yusuf Kavuma, was a victim of this brutality and came out bleeding profusely from a head wound sustained while photographing soldiers whipping civilians who had stood by the roadside in Kisubi.

WBS television reporter Mukasa Mulindwa confirmed that his camera was confiscated by a man in military uniform who was unhappy that he filmed him firing into the crowds at Bwebajja.

Dr Besigye also called for calm among his supporters, and asked police to return the abandoned boda bodas motorcycles to their owners because they had not committed any crimes.

“Power is not only in the gun, we shall use the power of the people to take our nation ahead. Be courageous; don’t think that we shall use the gun to overcome these people to get them away,” he said. “Be peaceful and calm, the situation will calm down.”

He also said the dignitaries who had just left the swearing-in ceremony knew they had sworn in the wrong President. Many of them saw the huge crowds that mobbed Dr Besigye as they drove back to Entebbe where they were to be hosted at State House.

And while the police and military hustled Dr Besigye supporters on Entebbe Road, along the Kasangati Road leading to the FDC leader’s home people had by 9am started sweeping the route, decorating it with balloons and Besigye campaign posters which some were passionately kissing.

The army was heavily deploying right from Wandegeya near Kampala to Kasangati town junction where Dr Besigye branches off to his home.

Reported by Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa, Philippa Croome, Martin Ssebuyira, Walter Wafula, Sheila Naturinda & Isaac Imaka.

You may have heard of Black Star News, a New York-based and Ugandan-founded investigative newspaper, whose critical coverage of Uganda and metropolitan New York issues has made a name for its founder, Milton Allimadi.

Ugandans Abroad wanted to pick his brain about the business, and share the insights he’s gleaned with other African entrepreneurs in the diaspora.

Black Star News initially ran as a monthly metropolitan newspaper, but transitioned to a weekly newspaper so it could run more current movie listings, which has helped the publication to survive. Although there is a market in reaching advertisers who want to target black consumers in New York, the recent recession took a large hit on the investigative weekly.

When the publication first started, it hit a chicken-and-egg scenario, where you couldn’t get ads without being known, but needed the revenue to invest in your publication.

The publication was founded with an investment by Bill and Camille Cosby, after Allimadi sent them a copy of his business plan. Black Star News’ first ad came from the Independent Savings Bank, which had once advertised with the City Sun, where Allimadi had worked before founding his own paper.

The bank, which is now part of Sovereign Bank, took out two full-page ads in the Black Star News.

Getting the initial first corporate ad was a huge boon. “’You get them, and you want to show that to every other advertiser,” said Allimadi. To figure out the rates for his publication, he looked at rates for other established publications like the Amsterdam News, a black publication that launched in 1909, and discounted them. Back then, he says that it was a question of time.

“Advertisers tell you from the get-go, come back in five years,” he told Ugandans Abroad. “I tried to make the calls as much as possible to sell ads, and do the writing and editing at night.” Now, he has staff members that sell ads full-time, freeing him to focus on journalism.

“The call is very efficient now,” he said, since the paper has been building relationships with advertisers for years. Before, he says, he “was just calling and playing the numbers.” As the paper got scoops, they were featured in media outlets that ranged from CNN to the New York Post and the New York Daily News, which helped bolster his relationship with advertisers. “

There’s some recognition,” he said. The recession, however, really damaged the relationships between publications throughout New York and advertisers, who slashed their budgets. “The recession was really, really bad on us,” Allimadi said. “It almost knocked us down.”

To survive, the weekly reduced its page count and cut their paper size, and cut the frequency that they came out for a few months, combining some of their issues to make ends meet.

Things have improved since the economy began to recover, to Allimadi’s relief. “It’s like night and day,” he said. In a 20-page newspaper, Black Star News typically sells about four to five pages of ads, some with multiple runs. They all sell ads on their website, which they hope to focus on more down the road. The newspaper is still “the bread and butter,” he says.

Their pockets are not as deep as other publication, and they rely only on freelancers, which helps them control costs. “I think our market is relatively untapped for African-American readership,” he said. “You can operate a profitable daily.”

The paper is focused on increasing its print runs and their advertising resources, and hopes to tap into a vacuum left by the Village Voice for investigative journalism. The Village Voice recently let go of veteran city reporter Wayne Barrett and lost Tom Robbins, a loss the newspaper might not survive.

“You wouldn’t believe the number of stories we have in the pipeline,” he said. “We want it to be a decent paper and viable as a business.”

For entrepreneurs interested in creating businesses that cater to African and Caribbean immigrants, as well as Latinos, Allimadi believes that the market is huge. “The demand is here,” he said. “Just create the medium.”