The murder trial of slain Rongo University student Sharon Otieno failed to start on Tuesday after Migori governor Okoth Obado filed an application seeking Sharon’s family lawyers to be removed from the case.
The governor wants to be prosecuted by the state and not family lawyers. This was just one of the undertones in the political power play and mind games that will dominate the case in the coming weeks.
Earlier on, news broke that the DPP had dropped a conspiracy to commit murder charge against the embattled governor. Some media houses however intentionally misreported this, telling their audiences that Obado has been let free in the case.
The governor is still facing a double homicide charge of killing his seven-month pregnant girlfriend and their unborn son in September last year.
Sharon’s family however argues that the decision to drop the charges is a deliberate effort by the state to weaken the charges against Obado and let him get away with murder.
The DPP has also opposed an application by Obado’s co-accused; Michael Oyamo and Caspal Obiero, who want Justice Jessie Lessit to recuse herself from the case.
The two argue that the judge will not give them fair trial owing to the fact that she had denied them bail in October last year.
The DPP has argued that their reasons do not meet the basic test to disqualify a judge.
Sharon’s mutilated body was found in a thicket in Kodera forest on 4th September 2018. An autopsy report revealed that she had been stabbed eight times with one of the knives penetrating her belly and killing her unborn baby. Her family believes she was gang-raped by her killers.
The former Rongo University student had been last seen in the company of Michael Oyamo, who is believed to have lured her abduction.