Governor Okoth Obado to be charged with Sharon Otieno’s murder

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations confirmed in a tweet that Obado will spend the weekend at Gigiri Police Station before being arraigned in court on Monday to answer to murder charges.

“Migori Governor Okoth Obado has just been arrested after recording his statement at DCI Kenya Headquarters and is currently in lawful custody at Gigiri Police Station. He will be arraigned in court on Monday to face charges of murder of university student Sharon Otieno,” read the tweet.

The governor had for the better morning been grilled at the DCI headquarters on Kiambu Road almost two weeks after being interrogated at the Nyanza Regional Police headquarters in Kisumu.

Governor Obado and his wife Hellen are prime suspects in the case after a DNA report compiled by the government chemist confirmed that the baby Ms. Sharon was carrying was Mr. Obado’s.

An autopsy conducted on Ms. Sharon’s body by Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor revealed that she had been stabbed 8 times including through her stomach which led to the death of her infant.

On September 20, Mr. Obado’s personal assistant Caspar Obiero and bodyguard Calvins Omondi were arrested after police impounded Mr. Obiero’s car believed to have been the vehicle used to kidnap Sharon and Nation Media Group (NMG) journalist Barrack Oduor from Rongo town in Migori County.

Micheal Oyamo, another of Mr. Obado’s aides was also arrested on September 4 after heavily featuring in reports detailing the kidnapping plot of Ms. Sharon and Mr. Oduor.

The case has been unfolding for one month now. Ms. Sharon’s body was found dumped in Kodera Forest in Homa Bay on September 5 after she and Mr. Oduor were kidnapped on September 3.

The postmortem also revealed that she could have been raped in the horrendous ordeal. At the time Ms. Sharon was seven months pregnant.

Ms. Sharon had called Mr. Oduor to tip him on a story that a prominent politician believed to be Obado had impregnated her and abandoned her, revelations confirmed by the DNA test.

Mr. Oyamo would later seek audience with the journalist to set the record straight on the matter, a meeting that later turned out to be a failed kidnap attempt.