Otim was badly beaten on the head and all over the body and was left helpless and profusely bleeding, until well-wishers helped him get home to his mother.
The 16-year-old Joshua Leon Otim, till his death a student of Excel High School in Mukono and who was widely shown in media videos bleeding profusely while following presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi’s Gulu vote hunting trail, has died following the injuries he sustained, which are said to have caused a crack on his skull.
The late Otim had gone back home for the end-of-year holidays when he joined the NUP presidential candidate’s trail where the team is alleged to have been attacked by people suspected to be supporters of the ruling NRM together with the UPDF officers, who started indiscriminately beating up everybody using long sticks.
The deceased, a son of Margaret Abalo, widow to the late Col. Agustine Anywar, was allegedly attacked by the gang who had just vandalized the public address system set up to be used by Kyagulanyi at his main venue.
Otim was badly beaten on the head and all over the body and was left helpless and profusely bleeding, until well-wishers helped him get home to his mother.
The mother rushed him to St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor where a scan established that he had developed a fractured skull bone, leading to internal bleeding, suspected to be the cause for his death shortly after.
He follows an earlier victim who was shot dead by armed security men in Iganga who used live bullets to disperse Kyagulanyi’s supporters.
Meanwhile, a cross section of people including religious leaders and security heads have variously condemned excessive use of force in areas where the National Unity Platform candidate Kyagulanyi has been campaigning, with promises to look into the matter and bring culprits to book.
