The murder trial of Migori Governor Okoth Obado resumes in July after more than a one-year hiatus occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Mr Obado (right) is charged alongside his aides—Michael Oyamo and Caspal Obiero—with the murder of former Rongo University student Sharon Otieno. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has lined up 37 witnesses to testify against the accused.

The case had been scheduled for hearing from March 16 last year but was halted following the scaling down of court activities to curb the spread of the disease.

Sharon was brutally murdered and her body dumped in a thicket in Oyugis, Homa Bay County, in September 2018. She was stabbed eight times while seven months pregnant. Her parents, Douglas Otieno and Melida Auma, yesterday said they were hopeful justice would prevail.

“Let us wait and see. We are almost getting to the third year since our daughter and her unborn child were murdered. We are hoping she will get justice,” said Mr Otieno.

What happened

Sharon was a second year student pursuing a degree in medical records and information. During the second anniversary of her death on September 4, 2020, her family urged the prosecution and the courts to fast-track the hearing to put the matter to rest.

Sharon and journalist Barrack Oduor were abducted moments after being lured out of a hotel in Rongo Town and bundled into a waiting car.

 The journalist, however, acted fast and jumped out of the speeding vehicle at Nyangweso market on the Homa Bay-Kisumu Road.

A post-mortem report indicated that Sharon had been stabbed four times at the back, three times on the neck and once on the left side of her abdomen. 

Mr Obado admitted that the slain student was his girlfriend. A DNA test confirmed that the murdered infant was Mr Obado’s.

“There are 99.99+pc more chances that Zacharia Okoth Obado is the biological father of the ... child,” detectives said.

Mr Obado is out on a Sh5 million bail. By Ruth Mbula, Daily Natiion