Taxi driver narrates how he was hired to ferry Sharon's killers

The late Sharon Otieno. Taxi driver Jackson Gombe says he learnt of Sharon’s death through the news on TV. [File, Standard]

A taxi driver has narrated how he was hired to ferry the alleged killers of university student Sharon Otieno.

Jackson Otieno Gombe testified that he did not even know that he had carried the killers from Rongo town to the killing forest in Oyugis town.

He also said that he was not aware that Sharon had been murdered since the killers kept him in the dark until when he was arrested on suspicion that he was part of the scheme.

“I did not even know the lady I had carried was Sharon and that she had been murdered until I saw the news on television. It was until I was arrested that I came to know that the people I carried had murdered the lady,” said Gombe.

Gombe was testifying in the case where former Migori Governor Okoth Obado, his former personal assistant Michael Oyamo and former Migori County clerk Caspal Obiero are charged with the murder of Sharon and her unborn baby on September 3 2018.

He said that he was employed by Obiero’s wife as a taxi driver and on September 3, 2018, he was instructed by a police officer named Elvis to go and pick Oyamo at a place in Uriri town and take him to a place he would be told.

Gombe said that when he got to Uriri at 6pm, he found Oyamo in the company of two men and they all boarded the taxi and instructed him to drive to Rongo town.

“At Rongo town, they told me to wait at the parking of Graca Hotel where Oyamo went in and came back in the company of a lady (Sharon) and another man. They boarded the vehicle and told me to drive to a nearby petrol station,” said Gombe.

While at the petrol station, the witness said Oyamo remained behind and they were joined by another man who instructed him to drive towards Kisumu, through Homa Bay.

Asked whether he heard what the men were discussing, he said that he had put on loud music and could not hear what they were discussing since they were speaking in low tones and he had been told to just follow instructions.

On their way past Homa Bay town, he stated that he heard some commotion at the back of the car as if the door had been opened and someone jumped out.

They then drove to Oyugis town where he was instructed by the alleged killers to drive to a forest and told to switch off the car lights and engine.

“They alighted with the lady (Sharon) and told me to wait. After about 20 minutes, they came back without the woman and when I asked where she was, they told me they had taken her home and instructed me to drive back to Migori,” said Gombe.

The witness said he was initially put under witness protection for three years but left the programme after the conditions became unbearable and he went back to his family.

Hearing continues today when the defence lawyers will cross-examine the witness.