Judgment day for Obado as court rules on Sharon Otieno murder case
Crime and Justice
By
Nancy Gitonga
| Jul 23, 2026
All eyes will be on the High Court on Thursday as it delivers the long-awaited judgment in the murder trial of former Migori Governor Okoth Obado and his two former aides, in the 2018 killing of Sharon Otieno.
The highly anticipated decision will bring to an end nearly eight years of investigations and court proceedings in one of the country's most high-profile criminal cases against a former governor.
Justice Cecilia Githua is expected to determine whether the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Obado, his former personal assistant Michael Juma Oyamo and former Migori County clerk Casper Ojwang Obiero jointly planned and executed Sharon's murder.
The DPP Renson Ingonga has urged the court to convict all three accused persons, maintaining that the evidence presented during the trial established a joint criminal enterprise aimed at eliminating Sharon and silencing journalist XYZ after Sharon's pregnancy allegedly threatened to expose Obado to political and reputational damage.
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According to the prosecution, the three accused acted with a common intention, with the evidence demonstrating planning, facilitation, execution and an elaborate cover-up after the killing.
"The prosecution's case is built on a coherent narrative that the accused persons acted in concert, with a common intention, to eliminate Sharon Otieno and silence XYZ," the DPP submitted, arguing that the killing was intended to avert "escalating embarrassment, reputational harm and political fallout for Obado."
The prosecution through Gikui Wangui further argued that Obado was the ultimate beneficiary of the offence, while Oyamo and Obiero served as trusted operatives who coordinated meetings, logistics and financial support for Sharon before the murder.
She told the court that witness testimony, forensic evidence, communication records, financial transactions and circumstantial evidence formed an unbroken chain linking all three accused to the crime.
The DPP also pointed to what it described as extensive pre-planning and post-offence concealment, including alleged fabrication of medical records, false police reports, concealed communication channels, suspicious mobile money transactions and the disabling of a vehicle tracking system, arguing that the conduct demonstrated "consciousness of guilt."
Relying on the doctrines of common intention and joint criminal liability under Sections 20 and 21 of the Penal Code, prosecution argued that criminal responsibility did not depend on who physically carried out the killing but whether the accused acted together in furtherance of a common design.
In its closing submissions, the DPP urged the court to find that it had proved all the ingredients of the offence of murder beyond reasonable doubt and enter convictions against all three accused persons.
Obado and his co-accused have consistently denied the murder charge.
They have urged the court to acquit them, arguing that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Obado, through Senior Counsel Kioko Kilukumi, maintained that there was no direct evidence linking him to Sharon's murder and insisted that the case was founded on suspicion arising from his admitted intimate relationship with the deceased, while Michael Oyamo and Casper Obiero argued that the prosecution's witnesses gave contradictory and unreliable evidence that could not sustain a conviction.
Sharon, then a 26-year-old Rongo University student who was about seven months pregnant, was abducted on the night of September 3, 2018, alongside journalist XYZ.
The journalist escaped by jumping from the moving vehicle, while Sharon's body was discovered the following day in a forest near Owade area, close to River Owade in Rachuonyo, Homa Bay County, bearing multiple stab wounds and signs of strangulation.
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