Obado, co-convicts back in court as Sharon murder sentencing looms

Convicted former Migori Governor Zachariah Okoth Obado and his two former aides will return to the Milimani High Court today for a virtual mention as the court prepares for mitigation and sentencing over the murder of Sharon Otieno.

Justice Cecilia Githua is expected to confirm whether pre-sentence and victim impact reports have been filed before giving further directions on the case.

Today’s mention is not the sentencing date but will determine whether the court has received the reports required before mitigation and sentencing of the three convicts.

Last month, Justice Githua ordered the Probation Department to prepare and file the reports within 21 days after convicting Obado,  his former personal assistant Michael Juma Oyamo and former Migori County Clerk Caspal Ojwang Obiero of murdering 26-year-old Rongo University student Sharon.

Sharon, Obado’s former lover, was seven months pregnant when she was abducted and killed in September 2018, in a case that captured national attention.

Following their conviction on July 23, the judge cancelled the trio’s bond terms and ordered them to remain in custody at Industrial Area Remand Prison pending sentencing.

If the pre-sentence and victim impact reports are ready, the court is expected to set a firm date for mitigation and sentencing.

The victim impact assessment is expected to give the court an account of the consequences of Sharon’s death on those she left behind, including her parents and children, while the defence will seek to place the convicts’ personal circumstances before the court in an effort to secure lenient sentences.

The sentencing process follows a judgment in which Justice Githua found that the three convicts played different but complementary roles in Sharon’s killing.

The judge found Obado to have been the driving force behind the plot, with the prosecution proving that he supplied the motive, instigation and money used in the murder.

Justice Githua rejected Obado’s defence that he had accepted Sharon’s pregnancy and was genuinely supporting her.

She found that his offer to build Sharon a house worth about Sh3.5 million, after she demanded between Sh20 million and Sh25 million, a high-end car and a good job, was a delaying tactic rather than proof of genuine support.

“Obado’s claim that he had accepted Sharon’s pregnancy and was comfortable with it, which was demonstrated by financial support he offered, was, in my considered opinion, not sincere,” Justice Githua stated.

The court found that Obado had pressured Sharon to terminate the pregnancy and given her Sh30,000, which she declined following her mother’s advice.

The judge concluded that the pregnancy gave Obado a clear motive to eliminate Sharon and protect his reputation.

DNA evidence presented during the trial also established that Obado was the father of Sharon’s unborn child.

Although Obado was not physically present when Sharon was abducted and killed, Justice Githua found that he set the events leading to her murder in motion and financed the plot.

The judge further noted that mobile phone data placed Obado in contact with his former aide Obiero five times on September 2 and 3, 2018, the day before and the day Sharon was killed.

Justice Githua said the timing of the calls raised a reasonable inference that they were connected to the offence.

Obado did not provide an explanation for the calls or sufficiently challenge the evidence, the judge found.

His former personal assistant Oyamo, meanwhile, was found to have facilitated the execution of the plan.

The judgment cited evidence placing Oyamo near the hotel where Sharon was last seen before he handed her to unidentified men who forcibly took her away.

The court found that he played a lead operational role in carrying out the abduction that ultimately led to her death.

Justice Githua also pointed to evidence that Oyamo later attempted to construct a false alibi using forged medical documents to claim that he had himself been abducted around the same period.

The judge treated the conduct as evidence of consciousness of guilt.

Obiero, the former county clerk, was found to have provided logistical support and helped conceal the crime after the killing.

The prosecution called 52 witnesses during the roughly eight-year trial, which arose from Sharon’s murder and the disappearance of her unborn child.

The sentencing stage will now force the court to weigh the circumstances of the offence against the personal circumstances of each convict.

Murder carries the death penalty under Sections 203 and 204 of the Penal Code, but the punishment is no longer mandatory.

Following the Supreme Court’s landmark 2017 decision in Francis Karioko Muruatetu and another v Republic, the mandatory nature of the death sentence for murder was declared unconstitutional, paving the way for individualised sentencing.

The court is therefore expected to consider both mitigating and aggravating circumstances before determining the appropriate punishment for each of the three convicts.

Among the matters likely to feature at sentencing are the circumstances and gravity of Sharon’s killing, the respective roles played by the three men, their personal circumstances, their conduct before and after the offence, as well as the impact of the crime on Sharon’s family.

For Obado, who faces the possibility of a lengthy custodial sentence or the maximum punishment provided by law, today’s mention will mark the beginning of the final phase of a murder case that has followed him from the Governor’s office to the prison cell.

After nearly eight years of investigations and trial proceedings, the court is now preparing to determine not whether the three men are guilty, but what punishment should be imposed for Sharon’s murder and what sentence is proportionate to each convict’s role in the crime.