According to Michael Oyamo on 24th August 2018 he forwarded Kenya shillings 22,500 from his M-pesa account to Sharon and that the said money was to be used to purchase an air ticket to Nairobi where the deceased was supposed to meet with the former Migori governor Zachariah Okoth Obado.
Oyamo told Justice Cecelia Githua that he did not use his personal M-pesa line to send Sharon the money.
The court heard that the late Sharon and Oyamo had agreed that he (Oyamo) would facilitate her transport to Nairobi.
Speaking in court, he explained that he did not have sufficient funds in his account and therefore he had to deposit cash to his M-pesa. He proceeded to tell the court that the M-pesa attendant required his national ID which he did not have at the moment.
Explaining that he needed to send the money urgently, he pleaded with the Lady for an alternative option of sending that money to his M-pesa without an ID which the lady declined explaining that it was against their policy.
The lady suggested that instead she could deposit the money in her own M-pesa account and transfer it to Sharon via a third party identified as XYZ, who is a protected witness in the gruesome murder case.
After-which XYZ and Sharon flew to Nairobi. In his statement, Oyamo revealed that he had no idea on where the two spent the night. Lawrence Mbula was to join the two in Nairobi although he did not catch the flight with them.
Oyamo explained that he instructed Mbula to travel to Nairobi via his own means and that he would be reimbursed. Mbula is also said to have arrived in Nairobi on 24th.
Oyamo clarified that the trio were in Nairobi to meet the former Migori governor who had a meeting to attend in Nairobi.
Background of the murder case
The late Sharon Otieno was a third year student at Rongo University who met her brutal death on the night of September 3rd 2018.
In the highly publicised murder case, the former Migori county governor Okoth Obado, his P. A Micheal Oyamo and the Migori county clerk Caspal Obiero were arrested and charged with her murder.
After the closure of the prosecution’s case the learned judge justice Cecilia Githua ruled that the prosecution had established a Prima Facie case against the three accused persons.
The court then proceeded to put the three accused persons to their defence.
The first accused person, Zachariah Okoth Obado has since testified in the matter distancing himself from the murder case.
Obado admitted before the court that he indeed had an extramarital relationship with the late Sharon and that he was the biological father of the unborn child.
He however told the court that he has no reason to have Sharon killed since he had already accepted the responsibility of the pregnancy.
He also told the court that Sharon was not a minor and that it was not an offence to have any relationship with her.
The second accused person Micheal Oyamo has also distanced himself from the murder saying that on the fateful night he had met Sharon and XYZ at a hotel to resolve an issue between them(Sharon and XYZ).
In his statement he also mentioned that he had carried 100,000 Kenyan shillings which he was supposed to hand to the deceased.
Oyamo narrated that he had given the money to Sharon in two instalments as per her directions and paid the bill at the hotel they had met before he accompanied them to the parking lot where there was one black Toyota Wish.
He had handed her half of the money with XYZ being present and alleges that he handed her the rest shortly before Sharon and XYZ left.
“After bidding them goodbye, XYZ boarded the car and I took the opportunity to hold Sharon’s hand briefly handing over the other 50,000 Kenyan shillings.
Later he left the hotel and headed back to Migori, which is in the opposite direction from Homabay where the deceased and XYZ were headed. According to him this is the last interaction he had had with the two.
Oyamo also denied the allegations made by XYZ that Mr. Oyamo had claimed that the car they boarded was his and that he told the two that they should get in.
By Kelly Were
