Why Obado’s murder trial has been adjourned again
The murder trial of former Migori Governor Okoth Obado and two others has been adjourned to Tuesday owing to the prosecution’s failure to supply the defense team with crucial documents necessary for the case.
The documents in question are call data records from Safaricom running more than 500 pages.
Defense counsels led by Kioko Kilukumi, Roger’s Sagana, and Elisha Ongoya told the court they had initially been supplied with data for various phone number subscribers which was less than 50 pages.
This entails the protected witnesses’ data, Michael Oyamo’s which is 10 pages, Obado’s (26 pages), Kate Sharon Otieno’s data (5 pages) and Caspal Obiero’s (15 pages).
“The cumulative size of that data supply is 50 pages. If the data we are now expecting is more than 500 pages, then it is completely new information. That falls within the parameter of trial by ambush,” Ongoya said.
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Kilukumi urged trial Judge Cecilia Githua to have the documents supplied to them by today(Monday) at 2 pm to enable them to prepare for trial on Tuesday.
Githua took issue with how the prosecution chose to handle the matter.
“I hope going forward you will be more diligent, it’s not fair that we allocate a date for a hearing only for the matter to be adjourned,” she said.
The judge allowed the adjournment after the prosecution gave an undertaking to supply the required documents ahead of the hearing on Tuesday.
In the case, Obado, his personal Assistants Oyamo, and Obiero are being tried over the murder of Sharon Otieno and her unborn baby that took place on September 3, 2018, in Homa Bay County.
Thirty-eight witnesses have testified so far.
Why Obado’s murder trial has been adjourned again
