• Justice Cecilia Githua said the case has been pending since 2018 and justice must not be delayed.
• The judge asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to present two witnesses per day.
Image: FILE
An plea by Migori Governor Okoth Obado to have his murder trial adjourned owing to Covid-19 restrictions in Western and Nyanza regions has been declined by the High Court.
Justice Cecilia Githua said the case has been pending since 2018 and justice must not be delayed.
The judge asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to present two witnesses per day.
In the case, Obado, Juma Oyamo and Casper Obiero are accused of killing Sharon Otieno and her unborn child on September 3, 2018 at Owade in Rachuonyo subcounty, Homa Bay county. Sharon was 26.
Defence counsels led by Kioko Kilukumi, Rodgers Sagana, Tom Ojienda and Elisha Ongoya had asked the court to adjourn the matter because the suspects reside in Migori, now a Covid hotspot.
Their concern was that the Delta variant, which is responsible for the infection wave in Western and Nyanza, is highly transmissible.
“For the good of the country, the public health authorities isolated Migori and the Western region and strongly discouraged movement into and out of that zone,” Kilukumi said.
Kilukumi told Justice Githua that it is not their intention to derail the hearing of the matter, but the trial would put many lives at risk.
“The is an intervening occurrence completely out of my client's control. Consider giving us hearing dates after the court's vacation. Hopefully the fourth wave will have come and gone,” Kilukumi said.
Lawyers Ojienda and Ongoya asked the court to postpone the July 5 to July 15 hearing dates.
The hearing was to start on Monday and proceed for the next 10 days. Thirty-five witnesses will testify in the case.
Justice Githua said the hotspot zones have not been put on lockdown. She noted that movement has not been restricted but strongly discouraged.
“I am mindful of reasons cited for adjournment mainly because it is for the safety of all because the trial would have to proceed physically. But it is not known how long the pandemic will be in our midst,” she said.
Githua said she consulted with the High Court's deputy registrar, who indicated that there is a tent within the court precincts that can be used with a capacity of 50 persons.
That way, she said, it will be possible to conduct the trial without compromising anybody's safety.
She however restricted the hearing to the suspects and their counsels, the team from the Director of Public Prosecutions and Sharon's family lawyer.
In issuing the directives, Githua considered submissions made by Catherine Mwaniki from the DPP’s office who said that the areas had not been placed on lockdown.
She said Obado appeared at Ramogi FM studios in Nairobi on June 30 as a guest in a show hosted by Victor Juma. She also indicated that the accused appeared again on a radio station owned by KBC.
“Obado has been in Nairobi outside the containment measures. This is a matter of public interest. Let us be provided with a tent and have the matter proceed as we saw during last week's BBI appeal hearing,” she said.
Mwaniki also said witnesses under protection have been in that state for the last two years and it's causing them fatigue.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)