Governor Obado wants Sharon Otienos family lawyer disqualified from murder case

Governor Obado wants Sharon Otienos family lawyer disqualified from murder case

Migori County Governor Okoth Obado has now filed a petition seeking to have a lawyer representing murdered Rongo University student Sharon Otieno’s family disqualified from the case.

According to the governor, Prof. George Wajackoyah has privileged information which he is apprehensive may be revealed and/or shared with the prosecution in the course of the proceedings.

According to Governor Obado, the continued appearance of the advocate for the victim’s family in the case will breach his constitutional right to a fair trial and cause great miscarriage of justice.

The Migori County boss, in court papers seen by Citizen Digital, said that on September 23, 2018 — two days after his arrest — the advocate paid him a visit at Gigiri Police Station and sought his instructions on the murder case.

He further argued that, with the assurance that there was no conflict of interest, Prof. Wajackoyah was given instructions to represent him.

“He intimated to me that he had done a lot of consultancy work with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI),” said the embattled governor.

“In this process, he showed me correspondence between himself and the two offices and I was convinced that indeed he had good knowledge in criminal law practice. He further confirmed that the two offices cleared him to represent me.”

The Migori County boss added that, when he was arraigned in court on September 24 last year, there were several other counsel acting for him and on taking the coram, Prof. Wajackoyah was excluded despite being present.

It is then that the advocate, Obado stated, took serious issue with the omission of his name from the coram and allegedly informed him as much.

Governor Obado also said that in the subsequent court appearance, Prof. Wajackoyah introduced himself as the advocate for the victim’s family and continues to be on record for them to date.

“I also reasonably believe that the advocate’s representation of the victims is aimed at advancing a certain mischief against me since there is a glaring conflict of interest on his part,” he said.

The application will now be heard on November 27, 2019, by Justice Ngenye Macharia after Justice Jessy Lesit referred it to her.

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Migori County governor okoth obado Sharon Otieno murder case Prof. George Wajackoyah

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