Two Theories Linking Governor Okoth Obado to Sharon Otieno’s Murder: Part 1
Since Sharon Otieno, a student at Rongo University, was murdered on Wednesday, 5th September, almost all fingers have been pointed in the direction of Migori Governor, Okoth Obado. At the time of her murder, Sharon was seven months pregnant and the father of the unborn child is suspected to have been Governor Obado. The Governor has been the key suspect in the murder because after Sharon’s mutilated body was discovered in a thicket, it emerged that the governor’s Personal Assistant, Mr. Michael Oyamo, featured prominently during the kidnapping of Sharon. As Kenyans and the world continued to ponder on this macabre murder of a young Kenyan lady, two theories around the murder have since come to surface.
Governor Obado sanctioned Sharon’s murder to protect his image and reputation
At the time of death, and although DNA analysis is not yet out, it is suspected that the seven month-old baby Sharon was carrying in her womb belonged to Governor Obado. If Obado was not the father of the unborn child, a more disturbing reality is that the child could have been fathered by Tito Obado, the Governor’s son, whose name has been dropped as one of the consumers of the late Sharon’s goodies. While the murder is most foul, Sharon might have put herself in double jeopardy in case it is true that she was shacking with both father and son.
The Obado link to the Sharon murder germinates from a series of motives. Speaking to The Nation, Sharon’s mother, Melida Auma, confirmed that her daughter told her that she was having an affair with the governor and that the baby she was carrying had been accepted by the governor who also promised to care for the baby. “She told me the governor was responsible for her pregnancy and that he would care for her until childbirth,” Sharon’s mother told the Nation newspaper. If Obado was responsible for the pregnancy, the link between the governor and the murder is based on the perceived intention of the governor to eliminate the baby and there could have been no other way of eliminating the baby after Sharon allegedly refused a plea by the governor that she aborts the baby.
Was Sharon Shacking with both father and son?
According to the Daily Nation journalist, Barrack Oduor, Sharon played her an audio of a hostile phone conversation between her and Obado in which the governor pleaded with Sharon to abort the baby but Sharon allegedly refused. If Barrack’s information can be taken at face value to assume that the audio existed, then a motive for murder on the side of Obado can also be deduced. Did the governor kill Sharon to eliminate the baby after Sharon refused his abortion offer?
More disturbing was a revelation by journalist Oduor that in the cause of his conversations with Sharon, the lady revealed that Governor Obado got angry when he discovered that Sharon had been chatting with his son, Tito Obado. The implication is that Sharon may have been romantically involved with Obado’s son and if this intimate relationship did exist, the consequence is that Sharon’s baby may as well have been Tito’s baby. Eliminating her would have therefore eliminated the prospect of an embarrassing inconvenience where Governor Obado would have had to deal with a child sired by his son and by a woman he was sexually involved with in a clandestine relationship.
Spreading Governor Obado’s nudes online: motive for murder?
Journalist Oduor also disclosed that according to Sharon, Governor Obado had neglected her soon after the governor discovered that Sharon was chatting with Tito. Matters came to a stand-still when the governor discovered that Sharon was pregnant. What is interesting with the Oduor revelations is that Sharon kept sending some images to Obado after their affair hit the rocks and, according to Oduor who spoke to The Nation, Governor Obado was upset. Although the nature of the images was never disclosed, it is likely that Sharon was sending nude images of the governor to him in a black-mail strategy to allegedly get the governor to build her a multi-million house and finance her slay-queen life-style in exchange for silence after she was apparently dumped.
Oduor told the Nation newspaper that Sharon was not happy that the Governor had sent her a paltry 100,000 Kenyan shillings three weeks before her meeting with Oduor as compared to the good old days when the governor could send her 300,000 shillings without seconds thoughts. The theory that the governor ordered the murder is further linked to the understanding that if Sharon was intending to spread the Obado nudes online in a black-mail campaign to destroy the governor’s political career, it was in the interest of the Governor that Sharon be eliminated from the scene. Indeed, after Sharon’s murder, some alleged Obado nudes did surface online although the images could not be linked to the Sharon leaks. Did Obado kill Sharon to prevent the nudes from leaking?
If he met them, Governor Obado’s Personal Assistant knows Sharon’s killers
The Governor is further tied to the murder because Michael Oyamo, his PA was the last person linked to the governor to have been in contact with Sharon before her body was discovered. Oyamo was in the car which ferried Sharon to her murder scene while when he disembarked ahead of Sharon’s murder, two strangers (assumed to have been the killers) boarded the car. This was before Oduor allegedly jumped out of the moving car. If this is true, it follows that Oyamo must have known the two strangers while it follows that he also knows both the driver of the car and another occupant said to have been seated on the front seat.
The lead theory here is that Governor Obado instructed his Personal Assistant, Oyamo, to engage the killers, Oyamo then organized a ploy to kidnap both Sharon and Oduor, arranged to pick the killers then disembarked at the point when two perpetrators boarded the car. In a drama that cannot yet be understood, Oduor allegedly jumped out of the moving car to a near-by village house as the killers drove off with Sharon. The killers then raped Sharon (five used condoms were found at the murder scene) then killed her.
The theory that links Governor Obado to Sharon’s killing borrows heavily from the fact that his Personal Assistant was “in the thick of things” during the last hours of Sharon’s life. Pundits believe that Oyamo could not have been so deeply involved in the last-minute events prior to Sharon’s murder without the knowledge of Governor Obado. Under the circumstances, Governor Obado must have been involved in the murder through his Personal Assistant currently in custody.
Was Sharon murdered to save Governor Obado’s political career?
In summary, the theory that Obado killed Sharon stems from the fact that she was pregnant with a baby who may have been sired by either Obado or his son. Secondly, it builds on the suspected intention of Sharon to black-mail the governor by spreading the governor’s nudes online while it also hinges on the fact that the governor’s Personal Assistant was deeply involved in events that led to Sharon’s murder. This theory also borrows from the fact that the circumstances that surrounded Sharon’s pregnancy threatened the image, credibility and political reputation of the governor.
If Sharon went ahead to expose the pregnancy and spread the governor’s nudes online, the biggest political risk was that the governor’s enemies were bound to take advantage of the romantic fall-out to ensure that the governor was impeached as per provisions in the constitution.
The governor has too many political enemies especially those mark-timing in the Orange Democratic Movement and if the Sharon leaks were to reach the public lime-light, the governor had no chance of political survival. According to this thesis, Sharon could no longer be left to live because she had become a major threat to the governor. On the whole, Sharon had to die for the governor’s political career to survive.
