A 28-year-old mother of four, Rose Ajiko, tragically died after being trampled during a chaotic scramble for yellow T-shirts bearing President Yoweri Museveni’s emblem in Asuroi village, Kamuda Parish, Soroti County.

The incident happened on the evening of Saturday, January 10, 2026, at Aminit Primary School, where Patrick Aeku, the incumbent Member of Parliament and NRM flag bearer for Soroti County, was holding a campaign rally.

Ajiko leaves behind her husband, Francis Olanya, and four young children, the youngest just two years old. The incident has left the community in shock, with eyewitnesses blaming the tragedy on poorly organized campaign activities.

According to sources, Aeku had mobilized his team to drum up support for both his re-election bid and President Museveni’s candidacy. The arrival of a vehicle distributing yellow NRM T-shirts, however, triggered panic among the crowd.

“When the vehicle arrived, and people started throwing T-shirts into the crowd, everything changed,” said Sarah Aibo, a relative of the deceased who witnessed the incident. She added that she tried to restrain Ajiko from joining the scramble, but her warnings were ignored.

In the confusion, Ajiko was knocked down by the surging crowd and later pronounced dead on arrival at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital.

Eyewitness Emmy Ogonga criticized the handling of the distribution, saying: “If those giving out the T-shirts had asked people to line up and receive them calmly, this would not have happened. The negligence lies with our leaders, who should understand how desperate people in villages are for even the smallest things.”

Gabriel Engau, the NRM Chairperson for Asuroi village and Secretary of the LC1, confirmed that the rally had been proceeding peacefully until the T-shirt distribution caused the chaos.

Police authorities, led by Moses Olang, the District Police Commander of Katine Central Police Station, have launched an investigation. “We have deployed a large team of officers to record statements. Our Criminal Investigations Department personnel are on the ground, engaging witnesses to establish exactly what happened,” Olang said.

A postmortem examination is pending to determine the exact cause of death. Attempts to reach Patrick Aeku for comment were unsuccessful at the time of reporting.

This tragedy mirrors a similar incident in July 2025, when a campaign vehicle linked to Aeku caused an accident that claimed one life and left multiple others injured, raising concerns about crowd safety during political events in Soroti.

As the community mourns the loss of a young mother, the incident highlights the risks of poorly managed campaign events and the intense demand for political merchandise in local rallies.

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