Sharon Otieno's family pleads for justice two years after her murder
Melida Auma, mother of murdered university student Sharon Otieno, addresses relatives during a service to mark the second anniversary of her death at their home in Magara village, Homa Bay County, on September 4, 2020.
What you need to know:
- Sharon Belyne Otieno, who attended Rongo University, was stabbed eight times while seven months pregnant with Migori Governor Okoth Obado's child.
- On Friday, her relatives attended a short prayer service at their home in Magara village, Homa Bay, in her honour.
- They pleaded with the courts to fast-track the hearings so that the matter is put to rest.
It has been two years since university student Sharon Otieno was brutally murdered and her body dumped in a thicket in Oyugis, Homa Bay County, but her killers are yet to be brought to book.
Sharon had been missing for a while when her body was found on September 4, 2018.
As her family marked the anniversary of her death on Friday, it said it remained distraught and that the last two weeks were difficult as memories of events surrounding the student’s death flooded.
The sluggish pace of her murder case is more disturbing, they said.
The main suspect in the murder case is Migori Governor Okoth Obado, who was her boyfriend and the father of their unborn child.
A view of university student Sharon Otieno's home in Magara village, Homa Bay County, on September 4, 2020, where a memorial service in her honour took place.
Family’s appeal
On Friday, Sharon’s relatives attended a short prayer service at their home in Magara village, Homa Bay.
“It is like [she died] yesterday. The pain is still fresh in our minds,” said Mr Douglas Otieno, a peasant farmer. His wife Melida Auma is a mitumba trader and kindergarten teacher.
Mr Otieno said the case stalled after the coronavirus was first reported in the country in March.
“We have not heard anything concerning it. We were to go for a pre-trial hearing but nothing has been communicated to us,” he said.
They pleaded with the courts to fast-track the hearings so that the matter is put to rest.
“We pray for quick justice because that is the only thing which will somehow relieve the pain and anguish of losing our first born child,” said Mr Otieno.
The family made a comparison with political petitions, saying they are handled much faster as the families of murdered people live with the extreme pain that death brings.
“We are seeing other cases going on. Where is our daughter’s case? All we want is justice for Sharon and her baby,” said Ms Auma.
Relatives of university student Sharon Otieno attend a memorial service marking two years since her death at their home in Magara village, Homa Bay County, on September 4, 2020.
What happened
Sharon, who attended Rongo University, was stabbed eight times while seven months pregnant.
Sharon and journalist Barack Oduor went missing last year in September. They were kidnapped but the journalists managed to jump out of the abductors’ moving car, sustaining serious injuries.
A postmortem report stated that the fatal blow to both Sharon and her unborn baby was a stabbing through the 26 year-old’s abdomen.
Mr Obado admitted that the slain university student was his girlfriend.
Detectives and government scientists confirmed, to the highest degree known to science, that the baby boy ripped from Ms Sharon’s womb was Obado’s.
“There are 99.99+pc more chances that Zacharia Okoth Obado is the biological father of the foetus, that is Sharon Belyne Otieno’s child,” the detectives said.
The High Court in Nairobi released the governor on a Sh5 million bail.
His co-accused who are his close confidants, Michael Oyamo and Caspal Obiero, are awaiting conclusion of their cases.
