After years of testimony, mountains of proof, and a trial that has gripped Kenya since 2021, former Migori Governor Okoth Obado and two co-accused will lastly study their destiny on Could 29, 2026.
Woman Justice Cecilia Githua set the date on Wednesday, March 18, scheduling the decision for an open session on the Milimani Excessive Court docket in Nairobi – bringing one in every of Kenya’s most high-profile homicide instances one step nearer to a conclusion.
Obado faces the cost alongside his former private aide Michael Oyamo and Casper Ojwang, in reference to the September 2018 killing of Sharon Otieno, a Rongo College pupil whose homicide despatched shockwaves throughout the nation.
Why the Court docket Wants Extra Time
When the events gathered to repair the judgment date, Justice Githua was direct about why Could and never sooner.
“Given the many volumes of proceedings and the many exhibits in this matter as well as the latest submissions filed by the parties, the court will need sufficient time to prepare the judgment, and for that reason, I reserve the judgment for May 29, 2026,” she acknowledged.
The decide has ordered all events to look bodily at Milimani Excessive Court docket at 10:30 am on that date. No digital appearances – everybody should be within the room when the decision lands.
What the Prosecution Argued
In its closing submission, the Director of Public Prosecutions constructed its case round a principle of “common design” – the argument that every one three accused labored in coordination towards a single lethal consequence.
The state’s place is that Obado was the last word beneficiary of the plot, the person with the motive. Oyamo and Ojwang, within the prosecution’s framing, have been the trusted operatives who bought their palms soiled on his behalf.
The DPP positioned Oyamo and Ojwang at or close to the Graca Resort on the night of September 3, 2018 – the evening Sharon Otieno and journalist Barrack Oduor have been lured from that location and kidnapped.
Oduor, then a Each day Nation reporter, serves because the prosecution’s most essential residing witness. His account types the spine of the state’s timeline: he had gone to fulfill Oyamo to hunt a touch upon the governor’s affair, and the 2 have been persuaded to maneuver to a “quieter venue.” As soon as contained in the automobile – a darkish grey Toyota Fielder registered as KCL 481K – two strangers jumped in and started strangling them. Oduor managed to throw himself from the transferring automotive close to Kendu Bay and survived. Sharon and her 28-week-old unborn child weren’t so lucky.
The automobile itself has turn out to be one of the vital consequential particulars within the case. The Toyota Fielder is registered to the spouse of Casper Ojwang, and the prosecution alleges it was pushed by a person with longstanding ties to the governor’s internal circle.
How Obado Defended Himself
Obado has maintained his innocence all through the trial, and his ultimate submissions lean closely on what his authorized workforce calls the absence of any direct hyperlink between the previous governor and the crime itself.
His protection rests on 4 pillars. First, he argues that the prosecution’s whole case comes right down to his relationship with Sharon – particularly, that he fathered her baby, one thing he described as an “open secret.” Being the daddy of her unborn baby, his workforce argues, shouldn’t be proof of homicide.
Second, regardless of 42 prosecution witnesses taking the stand, not one testified to seeing Obado plan, fund, or instruct anybody to hurt Sharon. His attorneys characterize the state’s case as “purely circumstantial.”
Third, Obado factors to his whereabouts on the evening of the kidnapping: name knowledge and journey data present he was in Nairobi, making ready to journey to Rwanda – roughly 350 kilometers from the place Sharon was taken.
Fourth, and maybe most pointedly, his protection argues the state by no means established that Obado even knew the 4 people alleged to have carried out the stabbing in Kodera Forest, the place Sharon’s physique was later discovered.
Two Months, Two Competing Narratives
With the protection having wrapped up its presentation in April 2025, Obado took the stand and maintained his innocence all through. The courtroom now carries the burden of reconciling two sharply totally different accounts of what occurred that September evening.
On one aspect sits the prosecution’s “common design” principle: a coordinated plan, a getaway automotive tied to the accused, a survivor who lived to testify, and a former governor who, the state argues, had the whole lot to achieve from Sharon’s silence.
The opposite aspect sits a protection that claims the proof is skinny, the witnesses cease in need of the crucial hyperlink, and a person 350 kilometers away can’t be held liable for what occurred in a forest he was by no means close to.
On Could 29, Justice Githua will determine which model holds up.
