SOROTI, Uganda
The High Court in Soroti has convicted three members of one family over the murder of five-year-old Joan Faith Apio, a Primary One pupil at Jozan Nursery and Primary School in Soroti City.
Justice Boniface Wamala on Thursday, August 20, 2026, found school directors Suzan Vivian Ariokot and her husband, Joseph Okedi, and Okedi’s younger brother, Police Detective Corporal John Bosco Obotol, guilty of the murder.
Apio was killed on February 5, 2025. Her body was later discovered in a toilet at the school, setting off a murder investigation that attracted widespread attention in Soroti and the wider Teso sub-region.
The prosecution relied on witness testimony, forensic evidence and postmortem findings to establish what happened to the young pupil.
One of the juvenile witnesses told the court that Ariokot instructed her to bring Apio to the toilet. The witness later discovered the child with a serious injury.
The evidence presented to court also placed Obotol close to the school at the time of the incident.
The court, however, acquitted three other suspects who had been charged in connection with the killing.
They are former school headteacher James Edoket, school matron Osula Adongo and school cook Valentine Opio.
The trial had been marked by disagreements over evidence. Ariokot denied involvement and maintained that she was elsewhere when Apio was killed. Her defence sought CCTV footage from Pride Bank to support her claim that she had gone there to process a Shs50 million loan.
The defence also sought recordings from Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, but the availability of the footage became a point of contention during the proceedings.
The murder has remained a major subject of public interest in the Teso sub-region, particularly because the victim was only five years old and the alleged offence occurred within a school environment.
Following the convictions, Ariokot, Okedi and Obotol were expected to return before Justice Wamala later on Thursday for sentencing.
