Setback for Governor Okoth Obado as High Court Declines Request

The murder case where Migori Governor Okoth Obado has been charged alongside two others of murdering 26-year-old Sharon Otieno will resume on July 12th 2021.

This is after the High Court declined to adjourn the case which has been going on since the gruesome murder of Sharon in September 2018.

The trial judge Cecilia Githua has directed the prosecution to avail two witnesses daily.

Through his lawyer Kioko Kilukumi, Governor Obado had called for the deferment of the hearings which began with a virtual hearing on Monday 5th July 2021.

The late Sharon Otieno/ Photo Courtesy

“My client is unable to travel outside the COVID-19 hotspot zone. Accordingly, we request the case be mentioned virtually on Monday, the 5th July 2021 for the purpose of fixing fresh hearing dates, hopefully at a time when the threat of COVID–19 has substantially subsided,” reads a letter written by the lawyer.

Sharon Otieno disappeared on September 3rd, 2018 with her mutilated body found in Kodera forest two days later.

An autopsy conducted by the government pathologist Johansen Oduor revealed that Sharon's death was caused by excessive bleeding.

The university student died a painful death having been stabbed a total of 8 times. 4 times on the back, 3 on the neck, and once on the left side of her abdomen.

Condoms found at the scene of the crime also indicated that she may have been raped.

Heavily pregnant at the time of her death, the stab to her abdomen also killed the foetus which DNA analysis revealed was fathered by Governor Obado.

The case against Obado and his co-accused Casper Obiero and Michael Juma Oyamo was set to kick off in March 2020 but was adjourned due to COVID19.