Witness: DCI wanted me to implicate Obado

An employee of Migori County government has narrated how detectives tried to force him to make false allegations implicating former governor Okoth Obado in the murder of Sharon Otieno.

Grado Otieno testified that he was detained for ten days at Muthaiga Police Station before being taken to the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) headquarters where he was given a pre-written statement to sign but he refused.

“I saw things in the statement which I had not recorded and I refused to sign it. They wanted me to admit and sign that I was in Kodera Forest where Sharon was killed but it was a lie since I did not even know the place,” said Otieno.

Otieno, who at the time of Sharon’s murder on September 3, 2018, was an office messenger at Obado’s office claimed that he was being forced to say that a taxi he had hired to ferry drinking water to the ex-governor’s home was used in the murder.

Although the witness admitted that he was a distant relative of Obado’s wife, he did not receive any instruction to protect the ex-governor’s family over their alleged involvement in the murder.

Otieno was testifying in the case where 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 at Kodera Forest in Rachuonyo sub-county within Homa Bay County.

He stated that police had initially arrested him in connection with the murder over the taxi he had hired which was allegedly used to ferry Sharon’s killers.

He told the court that on a fateful day, he was instructed by Obiero to hire a self-drive taxi and take water to the ex-governor's residence in Migori town.

“As an office messenger, I used to get instructions from the governor’s officers and on that day, Obiero told me to hire the taxi to take water. I did as instructed and got the taxi and delivered the water,” said Otieno.

He stated that since the taxi was manually driven and he had challenges driving it at night, he called Obiero at 8pm who instructed him to leave it at a car wash where it will be picked up.

He was then given money by Obiero to pay the taxi owner and did not know anything until he was picked up by detectives on suspicion that the taxi was used to ferry Sharon’s killers from Migori to Rongo town.

Another witness, Kenneth Onyango said he was the one operating the taxi hired by Otieno and that he did not deal with any of the three accused persons directly. “I remember that day I was in our normal working area when I received a call from my colleague asking me if I could hire a taxi to Otieno. I agreed and took the taxi to him,” said Onyango.

George Otieno confirmed that he was the one who called Onyango requesting the taxi hire after his own taxi broke down. They however said it was not unusual to hire out their vehicles to the Migori County staff.