Migori Governor Okoth Obado
A senior police detective confirmed to the court that former Migori governor Okoth Obado was not at the scene of the murder of Sheron Otieno.
Chief Inspector Nicholas Ole Sena, formerly based at DCI Headquarters before being transferred to another station, told Justice Cecilia Githua that the investigation revealed that Obado was not at the scene of the crime.
He also told the court that Obado was not at the place where Sheron was abducted before she was murdered, and the body was found at Oyugis.
“Your lord Sheron was abducted at a hotel, and his body was found in Oyugis,” said Chief Inspector Sena.
While answering questions by lawyer Rodgers Sagana, representing Obado, the officer confirmed that there is no evidence that Obado participated in the murder.
He told the court that Obado admitted while recording his statement that he had a love relationship with Sheron.
Sena testified that Obado told him that Sharon demanded a lavish lifestyle, including a house worth Sh20 million, and Sh5 million for her upkeep, in exchange for her silence over the affair.
He further told the court that Obado’s family knew that he had a relationship with Sheron. The officer denied the allegation by lawyer Sagana that Obado’s case was politically motivated.
The witness told the court that he established that by the time of Sheron’s murder, Obado was in Nairobi and that he was in a meeting called by ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Obado has been charged alongside his assistant Michael Oyamo and clerk Caspal Obiero over the murder that took place on September 3, 2018, in Homa Bay. Earlier, former Kanyandoto MCA Lawrence Mula, who gave his testimony, disowned part of his statement implicating Obado, his co-accused Michael Oyamo, and Caspal Obiero.
Almost five years after the three accused were charged, in September 2018, with the murder of Sharon and her unborn baby, the prosecution presented its 30th witness, with only five out of 35 witnesses remaining.
The prosecution, led by Ms. Wangui Gichuhi, was on their best foot to bring out from the witnesses what happened before Sharon’s death on the night she was killed, and after the fatal incident to unravel the puzzle of her death.
Defense lawyers Kioko Kilukumi and Rodgers Sagana, representing Obado, lawyer Ogada Meso, representing Oyamo, and lawyer Elisha Ongoya, representing Obiero, were equally up to the task of interrogating each allegation raised by the witnesses.
Mula, who had also been arrested in connection with Sharon’s murder, was the prosecution’s star witness of the week, taking three days on the dock for his evidence and cross-examination.
In his testimony that lifted the lid on the intrigues of events after Sharon’s death, he disowned part of his statement, saying it was written for him.
“I only stand with the testimony I have given in court and not the statement I was told to sign while at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters in Nairobi. I could not even read the statement at the time since I was worried after being suspected as one of the killers,” said Mula.
According to Mula, he recorded his statement while in custody at Homa Bay Police Station in September 2018, but when he was taken to the DCI headquarters, he was presented with another typed statement, which he said he was forced to sign under duress.
Mula testified that he believed Obado could have had no intention of eliminating Sharon since he treated the lady well by catering to all her needs.
“The way things were moving between Obado and Sharon was so well done that no one could think of killing her. I could not suspect that Obado or his assistant, Michael Oyamo, could have any intention of killing Sharon,” said Mula.
He, however, stated that Obado was concerned by the high demands made by Sharon and the extortionist bid she had hatched with a journalist.
He testified that Sharon demanded a lavish lifestyle, including a house worth Sh25 million, a car, and Sh5 million for her upkeep, in exchange for her silence over the affair, and that at one point she insisted on attending her clinics at Nairobi Hospital.
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Mula said he was the middle man in the ex-governor and Sharon’s squabbles before she started the blackmail and extortion, but he facilitated a truce between them in which Obado agreed to purchase Sharon a plot of land and build her a house.
The hearing continues
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