From five calls, Sh30,000 abortion cash and a cover-up case: How Obado was nailed

Former Migori Governor Okoth Obado at Milimani High Court for his judgment over the alleged murder of his former lover Sharon Otieno.[Nancy Gitonga, Standard]

Five calls to a trusted aide, an alleged Sh30,000 abortion payment, secret meetings with a journalist, a Sh3.5 million counter-offer and a desperate bid to suppress an illicit affair formed the chain of evidence that sent former Migori Governor Okoth Obado to prison for murder.

The former governor's conviction rested not on where he was on the night Sharon Otieno was killed, but on what the High Court found he had done in the weeks and months before her death.

In a well detail judgment, Justice Cecilia Githua reconstructed every crucial event, from the beginning of the affair, Sharon's pregnancy and failed negotiations and meetings, to M-Pesa transactions, frantic phone calls and the deployment of trusted intermediaries to keep the relationship from becoming public, before concluding they formed an unbroken chain of circumstantial evidence proving a common criminal design.

The story, as pieced together in court, began in late 2017.

Taking the witness stand in his own defense, Obado admitted that he first met Sharon in Nairobi during an Interpol security conference attended by governors from across the country.

According to his testimony, the two exchanged telephone contacts before meeting again a few days later in Kisumu.

What began as casual communication quickly blossomed into an intimate relationship, with the pair meeting several times in Nairobi and later in Migori.

Obado told the court the affair lasted only a few months before it began to unravel around March or April 2018.

He claimed he started questioning Sharon after discovering what he described as inconsistencies in her personal life, including that she already had three more children with different men and that the beauty business she had told him she operated did not exist.

By then, according to evidence presented before court, Sharon, a second-year medical student, had informed Obado that she was pregnant.

The court heard that the pregnancy fundamentally changed the relationship.

Sharon's mother Melida Auma testified that her daughter confided in her that Obado was responsible for the pregnancy but was unwilling to publicly acknowledge either her or the unborn child.

She said the former governor became hostile after learning about the pregnancy, stopped taking Sharon’s calls, withdrew financial support and offered her Sh30,000 to terminate it.

Encouraged by her mother, Sharon chose to keep the baby.

The court heard that Obado continued pressing Sharon to procure an abortion, repeatedly telling her that time was running out despite her insistence that she wanted to keep the baby.

During one meeting, he acknowledged the pregnancy but complained about her demands for between Sh20 million and Sh25 million, a house in Nairobi, a high-end vehicle, a good job and financial security for herself and their unborn child.

Obado repeatedly pleaded with Sharon to stop posting photographs of places they had visited together before eventually cutting off communication.

Justice Githua found the testimony significant, holding that it provided the backdrop against which the relationship steadily deteriorated and explained the growing conflict between the two.

With Obado now distant, Sharon turned to a journalist, hoping publicity would force him to respond.

The late Kanyadoto MCA Lawrence Mula, who died just days after testifying in the case, emerged as the crucial intermediary between Obado and Sharon, shuttling messages between the two, facilitating negotiations and eventually arranging for a journalist to meet Sharon after she threatened to expose their affair. 

The journalist's involvement soon reached Obado himself.

He and Mula testified that they met Obado at his Rapogi home, where, in the presence of his wife, they discussed Sharon’s demands.

Obado did not deny the affair but described Sharon’s demands for a house, vehicle and financial support as unreasonable.

He instructed the journalist not to publish the matter, gave them Sh20,000 and directed that future communication be handled through his personal assistant, Michael Oyamo.

"At the end of the visit, as the first accused(Obado) was bidding them goodbye, he instructed the journalist not to tell anyone about Sharon's pregnancy," Justice Githua noted in her judgment. 

Justice Githua treated the secrecy demanded by Obado at that meeting as telling.

 A man genuinely unconcerned about exposure, she found, does not summon a journalist to his private residence and instruct him to say nothing.

"If, as the first accused claimed, the affair was already known to his family and in the public domain, there would have been no reason to instruct the journalist to keep Sharon's pregnancy a secret," Justice Githua reasoned.

The court found Sharon's pregnancy threatened to expose an illicit relationship capable of damaging Obado's family life, political career and public image.

“The first accused had a strong motive to ensure that his illicit relationship was not known by the public, thus making him a beneficiary of the death of the deceased,” the judge ruled.

Through Mula, Sharon’s demand for silence remained between Sh20 million and Sh25 million.

Obado’s side countered with a proposal worth about Sh3.5 million, including purchasing land in Homa Bay and constructing a house for her.

Mula told the court Sharon accepted the proposal.

 "When I communicated to the Governor that Sharon had accepted his proposal, I saw from his face that he was happy," he testified, weeks before his own death.

However, Justice Githua further found that Obado's renewed financial promises, including offers of a house and land, were not acts of goodwill but calculated attempts to buy Sharon's silence until communication between them eventually collapsed.

The promised house was never built. The court found the offer was never intended to be honoured in full, its purpose was to keep Sharon quiet and buy time, not to provide for her.

In late August 2018, Mula, Sharon and the journalist received separate calls from a new Airtel number belonging to Oyamo, who informed them that Obado wanted to meet them in Nairobi to resolve the matter.

The journalist received Sh22,000 from a woman linked to a city hotel to facilitate their travel.

Unaware that Mula had also been invited separately, Sharon and the journalist travelled to Nairobi believing the dispute would finally be resolved.

Sharon waited for hours at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport expecting to meet Obado but he never arrived.

Sensing that something was amiss, she eventually left the airport without informing even the PA and spent the night at Capital Centre along Mombasa Road before returning to Migori the following day without seeing him.

On September 3, 2018, Oyamo summoned Sharon and the journalist to Gracai Hotel in Rongo, claiming Obado had sent a message.

He told them the venue was “too open” and led them to a dark, unregistered vehicle outside the hotel, claiming it belonged to him.

The vehicle moved towards Rongo before stopping near Mbaraki Junction, where Oyamo alighted. Two unidentified men then boarded from the rear seats.

The journalist testified that their phones were taken and Sharon was searched. As the vehicle headed towards Homa Bay, the men demanded to know why he was pursuing the governor’s story.

He told the court Sharon was crying and pleading not to be harmed.

The journalist said he was later attacked but managed to force open the vehicle door and escape.

Injured, he ran to a nearby homestead where police were alerted.

Sharon was never seen alive again.

Her body was found the following afternoon in a thicket near Owade, naked and lying face down.

DCI detectives also recovered her clothing, shoes, two used condoms, several packs of trust condoms, and illicit alcoholic substance beside her body

Government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor testified that she had suffered seven deep stab wounds, including one that pierced her uterus and fatally injured her unborn child. She had also been manually strangled.

Justice Githua ruled that Sharon’s death was unlawful and caused by deliberate acts demonstrating malice aforethought.

Within hours of Sharon's death, Oyamo and third accused Casper Obiero pressed a Migori clinical officer into issuing forged medical records for injuries Oyamo never sustained, then used them to report at Uriri Police Station that he too had been "abducted" the previous night and robbed of Sh270,000 belonging to Obado

Investigators found no injuries supporting the claim and the court ruled the report was a fabricated alibi created after Oyamo learnt Sharon had died.

Call data placed Obado in contact with Obiero five times between September 2 and 5   2018, twice before Sharon's death and three times after, contact the defence never explained.

The court also found that the vehicle used during the abduction belonged to Obiero’s wife and that its tracking device stopped transmitting during the period the murder occurred.

Oyamo was further found to have used a phone line registered in another person’s name.

Justice Githua ruled the communication was not accidental but formed part of a coordinated plan.

“The first accused supplied the motive, instigation and funds. The second accused facilitated execution, while the third accused ensured logistical support and concealment to avoid detection,” she held.

The judge found that each accused played a distinct role in a common criminal enterprise.

Obado, Oyamo and Obiero were convicted of murder under Section 203 as read with Section 204 of the Penal Code and remanded pending pre-sentence reports.

The matter will return to court on August 18 for sentencing directions.