Witness tells court he drove Sharon, killers

A taxi driver yesterday narrated to the court how he unknowingly drove the late Rongo University student Sharon Otieno and her suspected killers to the scene where she was murdered.

Jackson Otieno who used to drive a car belonging to Olivia, the wife of Casper Obiero, a clerk at Migori County and one of the accused persons in the murder of Sharon and her unborn child, narrated to the court the events on the fateful day.

Former Migori Governor Okoth Obado and his personal assistant Michael Oyamo are charged alongside Obiero with the murder.

Otieno told the court that on September 3, 2018, he woke up in the morning and took Olivia’s car to the carwash and later for evaluation.

“I had been told that the car had to be evaluated and that I should take it to the insurance company … .The car was evaluated although I did not have a log book, so I went for it at Olivia’s house,” he told the court.

He found two cars parked outside Olivia’s gate, one, a Toyota Allion which belonged to Oyamo while the second belonged to one Dickens, who they referred to as Dicky.

“At Olivia’s house I knocked and the door was opened by a lady called Chana. In the compound I saw three people; Casper Obiero, Oyamo and Dicky…I had gone there to pick the logbook…so I just greeted them and entered the house,” he told the court.

Once he got into the house, he told Olivia that he needed the logbook and receipts which she gave to him and escorted him outside.

“She advised me not to tell anyone what I had seen in the compound, I do not know why she told me that but there was a time during campaign time, people would flock to the house to be given money by Casper,” he told the court.

Otieno told the court that at around 5:45 pm, he received a phone call from one Elvis who is a police officer based in Migori county to go to Uriri at 6 pm to pick Oyamo.

He arrived at Uriri and picked Oyamo who told him to take him to Rongo.

“We went to Graca Hotel… Oyamo alighted and went to the hotel…after ten to twenty minutes he came back with two other people that I did not Know…One was a lady and the other a man…The lady was heavily pregnant. They both got into the car at the back,” he told the court.

The taxi driver told the court that Oyamo did not get in the car, and so he carried Sharon, Barrack and another man who told him to go behind a petrol station where two other men boarded.
He told the court that one man who was seated behind him told him to take the road, which headed to Kisumu.

‘While we were driving towards Kisumu … .There was a discussion taking place… Somebody asked, ‘how do you know this person?’ The lady responded saying he was just a friend,” Otieno told the court.
The taxi driver further claimed since the conversation did not concern him, he adjusted the car volume and did not hear the other part of their conversation.

The court heard that at Olare Centre, the taxi driver suddenly felt a gush of wind inside the vehicle as if a door had been opened.

“I was directed to divert and use a rough road, I adjusted the volume of the radio and therefore did not hear what they were speaking in low voices,” he told the court.

The taxi driver further claimed that he was again given another direction to head towards Oyugis town but they stopped at some point and he was told to switch off the car lights and engine.

The men alighted from the vehicle with Sharon and told him they would be back.

After 10 to 20 minutes, he heard someone knocking on his door asking him whether he was asleep.
He opened the door and three gentlemen got into the car. When he asked them where Sharon was, they said they had left her at her home and asked him to take them back to Migori town.

He recounted that they arrived in the nearby bushes where he was ordered to stop and the three men and the lady alighted.

The witness says he waited for a period of 10-20 minutes when one of the three men knocked his car and asked whether he had slept. He opened, and the three men entered without Sharon and another man.
He enquired about the whereabouts of the lady and one of them told him that they had dropped her at her home.

The three men asked him to drop them at Migori, the trio however alighted at a stage in Uriri and he chose to drive home since it was late around midnight.

He came to learn later from police investigator that the lady he had drove to forest in the company of three men was slain Sharon Otieno. Obado is charged alongside his personal assistants Caspa Obiero and Michael Oyamo.