Not yet! Governor Obado waits longer on bail ruling

Migori Governor Okoth Obado will have to wait a little longer before knowing the fate of his bond request after a Nairobi court set the ruling date on the application to Thursday.

After the prosecution and the Governor’s lawyers spent the better part of the afternoon on September 25 arguing on the bond application, Justice Jessie Lessit told Governor Obado that the ruling will be delivered at 2pm on Thursday.

This means that the Governor will spend another two nights in prison awaiting the bail ruling.

Through lawyer Cliff Ombeta, the Migori county boss had argued that denying bail would be a violation of a constitutional right and would continue to be an attack on Governor Obado’s dignity. “If this accused person was to come to court everyday in handcuffs where is the dignity?” Mr. Ombeta posed.

The renowned criminal defence lawyer also stated that Governor Obado’s presumption of innocence until proven guilty had been eroded as the media had already tried and convicted the Migori county boss in the court of public opinion. Mr. Ombeta also questioned why the prosecution had brought the accused to court having not completed investigations and on the premise of having a strong case yet not producing evidence.

The State however, through the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Jacob Ondari, rebutted by saying that the right to bond is not an absolute right, and that the court is vested with the powers of limiting all rights bar four of them, which are listed in Article 25 of the Constitution.

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Mr. Ondari also dismissed the effect of the notion that Governor Obado had been tried in the court of public opinion, saying the court had not sentenced him yet and was still bound to legal procedure, therefore he retained the presumption of innocence until the legal system found him guilty.

The Deputy DPP said the “compelling reasons” the prosecution was offering so as to deny bond were the severity of the sentence if the Migori county boss is convicted and the likelihood of Governor Obado interfering with prosecution witnesses, some of whom are from the Migori county government.

Governor Obado, who has been charged with the murder of the 26-year old Rongo University student Sharon Otieno, has denied the charge.

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