Nairobi, Kenya — In a dramatic twist in the ongoing Sharon Otieno murder trial, Michael Oyamo—the man accused of masterminding the brutal killing—has denied police claims that he was once a victim of abduction in the same case.
Testifying before Justice Cecilia Githua, Oyamo, a former aide to ex-Migori Governor Zachariah Okoth Obado, disowned an Occurrence Book (OB) entry from Uriri Police Station that allegedly documented his kidnapping.
According to earlier testimony from the lead investigator, Oyamo had presented himself to the station, claiming to have been abducted, and even furnished medical records from Kisii Hospital to support his story.
But in court, Oyamo refuted the report entirely. He told the judge he had voluntarily surrendered to authorities after news of Sharon Otieno’s disappearance and subsequent murder began making national headlines.
The prosecution has painted Oyamo as the linchpin in the murder plot, accusing him of orchestrating Sharon’s abduction and luring her into a deadly trap.
Oyamo in his defense has refuted the prosecution’s claim that he had arranged a meeting between ex- governor Zachariah Okoth Obado, a protected witness, Lawrence Mbula and the Late Sharon Otieno in Nairobi on the 24th of August 2018.
In his defense, Oyamo claimed his trip to Nairobi at the time was not to arrange any secret meeting but to mediate tensions between the protected witness and a third party named Lawrence Mbula.
He also described himself as merely a messenger who was concerned for Sharon’s welfare—not someone capable of orchestrating her brutal killing.
To date, the court has heard that three suspects—Obado, Oyamo, and former county clerk Casper Obiero—were the primary targets of the investigation.
The lead investigator explained the focus: Obado, allegedly the father of Sharon’s unborn child, was linked through motive; Obiero, through suspicious medical records; and Oyamo, as the alleged mastermind who tried to cover his digital trail by using an Airtel SIM card registered under a different name.
Sharon Otieno, then a third-year Rongo University student and 28 weeks pregnant, was abducted and later found dead on September 3, 2018.
The postmortem revealed that her unborn child also died after being stabbed in the womb.
The trio was charged with the murder of both Sharon and her unborn baby. However, the court has since acquitted them of the unborn child’s murder.
The judge ruled that the fetus, which had not been born alive, did not meet the legal definition of a person under Kenyan law and therefore could not be considered a separate victim of homicide.
With the case still unfolding and public interest intensifying, the trial is scheduled to resume on June 11, 2025, as the defense continues to unravel the prosecution’s narrative.
By Kelly Were
