In courts: Lead investigator to be cross-examined in Obado murder trial

The lead investigator in the murder of Rongo University student Sharon Otieno will today be cross-examined by the defence team of former Migori Governor Okoth Obado.

The case will be before High Court judge Cecilia Githua.

Investigating Officer Nicholas Ole Sena is expected to be cross-examined by the defence team. 

On May 10, the investigator told the court that Obado's aide Michael Oyamo planned the events leading to the murder of Sharon. 

Nicholas Ole Sena told trial Judge Githua that he didn't do cell phone triangulation for the people who were with Sharon on the night she was murdered because they already had a suspect, Oyamo. 

"The person who had planned all this was Oyamo. The other two people involved in this had no phones," he said.

From their investigations, they established that on a fateful day, Oyamo lured Sharon and a journalist under witness protection to a car waiting for them 300 metres from Graca Hotel in Rongo after a brief meeting.

The journalist, who managed to escape out of the moving vehicle, made a report that the investigators largely relied on to charge the accused persons.

The evidence is from the journalist and the taxi driver.

A Nairobi court will also rule whether it will allow police to detain three Nigerian nationals and two Kenyans linked to drug trafficking for 10 days.

Police constable Bonface Mutisya from the Anti-narcotics unit wants the court to allow him to detain the suspects.

He told Milimani principal magistrate Gilbert Shikwe that the five suspects were arrested in the Kilimani area on May 29, 2024, at around 2.00 am on suspicion that they were engaging in organised crime.

They are being investigated for traffic narcotics, drugs, and other psychotropic substances," the officer told the court.

The police are also probing the validity of passports and other travel documents held by the suspects in Kenya.

According to the detectives, the suspects are allegedly engaged in a multinational drugs syndicate with accomplices who are yet to be arrested.

The seized narcotics were subjected to a forensic analysis, and the report was availed.

The court heard that it took the police a whole day to break into the suspects' house in Kileleshwa, where the drugs were harboured.