Two Theories on Sharon Otieno’s Murder: ODM Murdered the Slay-Queen: Part 2
Another theory that has been gaining currency following the murder of university student Sharon Otieno is that members of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), a movement under which Obado is the Governor of Migori, allegedly organized Sharon’s killing to plunge Governor Obado into political crisis as a way of ousting him from Office.
The thrust of this theory is that Governor Obado has, for a long time, been in the bad books of ODM’s supremo and former Prime Minister, Honourable Raila Amolo Odinga. Consoling Sharon’s mother, Melida Auma, Gladys Wanga, MP for Homa Bay County, admitted to the Daily Nation Newspaper, that Obado has not been supporting all decisions of the Party although she never delved into the allegations that ODM might have killed Sharon to fix the Governor.
The broader questions that pop up with the “ODM killed Sharon” theory are multiple. Even though the acrimonious relationship between Governor Obado and Raila Odinga has been an open secret, Raila Odinga publicly supported Obado during a petition hearing filed by former Assistant Minister, Ochilo Ayako who sought court action to dethrone Obado from Office after Ayako failed to capture the seat during the last General elections held on 8th August 2017.
Governor Obado’s enmity with Ochilo Ayacko Extended
At that time, ODM’s leadership had thrown its weight behind Ochilo Ayacko as the Party’s preferred candidate but unfortunately, Obado proved to have been so popular in Migori County that he beat Ochilo Ayacko pants down during the Gubernatorial nominations to clinch the top spot as the Party’s candidate. A subsequent attempt by Ayacko to dislodge Obado at the polls by contesting as an independent candidate was also quashed when Ayacko lost the seat to Obado at the Election. Consequently, ODM’s leadership, led by Raila Odinga, had to eat humble pie and co-exist with Obado as the Party’s boss in Migori County. However, the seeds of discord between the Party’s leadership and Obado had been planted permanently.
Matters appears to have grown from bad to worse when Obado opposed what was called “direct nomination” of Ochilo Ayacko as ODM’s candidate for the Migori Senatorial seat after the incumbent, former Ramogi journalist, Ben Oluoch Okello, kicked the bucket at the MP Shah hospital in June this year where he had been admitted suffering from cancer. A crisis arose at Orange House when Obado refused to support Ayacko’s candidacy arguing that ODM should not impose leaders on Migori people through direct nominations.
ODM’s Intelligence about Obado-Sharon clandestine hook-up
As he vehemently assumed a militant position opposed to the Party’s line, Obado opted to support former MP Dalmas Otieno who was also eyeing the Oluoch’s seat. Dalmas and Obado’s friendship was born out of their common opposition to Raila Odinga’s schemes in Migori and by opposing ODM’s leadership choice, Obado had further added salt to a festering wound within the Party’s leadership. With the relationship between Obado, ODM’s leadership and Raila Odinga on a continuous spiral, the Party apparently saw an opportunity to cut Obado to size when the party got information that the governor was in trouble in a romantic triangle that may have involved his son and that a jilted clandestine lover was on the verge of spilling the beans to the media. Proponents of the “ODM killed Sharon” theory allegedly believe that ODM’s leadership must have taken advantage of Obado’s romantic tribulations to hammer a final nail into the governor’s political coffin by eliminating Sharon.
According to this theory, the Party’s intelligence unit had gathered information about the relationship last year but that there was no evidence. As the affair entered into a turbulent phase, the Party apparently gathered that Sharon was pregnant and that the relationship had also gone sour. A plan was therefore hatched apparently to kidnap Sharon and murder her because the immediate suspect would not be ODM but Governor Obado. The plan was later executed and currently, what the public is being treated to is simply the aftermath of a scheme which worked perfectly.
National prominence of Sharon’s murder promoted by ODM?
This theory was strengthened by the fact that soon after Sharon’s body was discovered in a thicket last week, the ODM supremo, Raila Amolo Odinga, was among the first high profile personalities to publicly send condolence message to Sharon’s family in a hastily convened Press Conference in Nairobi. The bone of contention among curious onlookers was that although Sharon suffered a cruel death at the hands of unknown murderers, Sharon was not a public figure whose murder warranted a quick and strong reaction by a high-profile personality of Raila’s calibre via a hastily prepared Press Conference.
The point is that several Kenyans lose their lives everyday without a comment from the ODM leader therefore, what was so special about Sharon? Given that her affair with Governor Obado was not public at the time of her murder, why was Raila moving with alacrity to give Sharon’s murder national prominence?
Those who perceived mischief in Raila’s message opined that it was probably because the ODM leader was privy to information that Sharon was Obado’s clandestine side-kick aka mpango wa kando and that by rushing to call for the DCI to investigate the matter immediately and bring the culprits to book, Raila was, in camouflage, calling for the arrest of Governor Obado to be locked in so that ODM’s leadership could finally win the battle between Obado and Raila Odinga before strategizing to install a Raila-friendly governor in Migori county.
When other ODM legislators took turns to organize Press Conferences to insinuate that Obado may have been involved in the murder, some of Obado’s supporters could not help thinking that ODM may have been in a rush to cover up a party-masterminded murder by introducing the name of Governor Obado to the murder before investigators could even begin their work in earnest. At least, this was the position of Governor Obado’s spokesperson who warned unscrupulous elements against politicizing the murder by linking it to the Governor. The ODM link to Sharon’s murder however begins to crumble when the details are examined much more closely.
Did ODM’s leadership murder Sharon to get-even with Governor Obado?
If the Party was involved in the murder, the expectation is that a party functionary or link could have been close to suspects in the murder case. The fact that Governor Obado’s Personal Assistant was in the car that ferried Sharon to her murder scene, together with the now established fact that two suspected perpetrators were picked up at the point where Obado’s PA alighted casts great aspersions on the credibility of the theory that ODM’s leadership masterminded the murder.
Secondly, Obado’s Personal Assistant is not in custody accidentally. He is the only person currently known to have seen the perpetrators. In fact, the fact that he was in the car which ferried the murderers to the murder scene seem to de-links ODM to the murder plot because how could Obado’s PA have been working with Obado’s enemies to kill Sharon so as to plunge the governor into political crisis?
Thirdly, it is known from police briefings that Governor Obado spoke to Sharon six times before her phone went dead on the evening she was allegedly murdered. Was it a coincidence? Or was she making frantic calls for mercy after she understood that she was on the hands of killers? One could have expected that if ODM’s leadership was involved in the murder, it is ODM-linked persons whose phones could be traced to Sharon’s final conversations before her murder but there is non so how is ODM involved in the murder?
Could a dead Sharon have been more useful to ODM’s leadership?
Assuming that ODM had hired special killers to eliminate Sharon, how comes that these killers were in the hands of Obado’s Personal Assistant until the last moments probably before Sharon was killed?
In any case, and given all the circumstances already enumerated, a better option (if ODM was interested in using Sharon to bring about Governor Obado’s downfall) could have been to allow the Obado-Sharon scandal to play itself out in the media. Later, the party could have lured Sharon to the Party leadership’s side then leverage her as a witness to further damage Obado politically using the nude images and video clips said to have been in her custody instead of killing her. Sharon could have been more valuable to ODM if she was alive than if she was dead and this observation tends to undermine the theory linking ODM to the murder. Without holding brief for ODM, this is plausible line of logic.
Whatever happened is still a matter for the investigators to unravel. In the meantime, and given the facts that have already been established around the murder, the theory that Sharon may have been murdered by elements linked to Governor Obado appears stronger than the ODM-link. What is your take? Let us know in the comments.
