Why Governor Obado wants Sharon’s family lawyer off the case

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Migori County Governor Zacharia Obado (right) and his co-accused persons during a past court appearance

Migori County Govornor Zacharia Obado has filed an application seeking to have Sharon Otieno’s family lawyer George Wajackoyah disqualified from acting for them.

The Governor, who is charged alongside two county workers with the murder of Sharon says that on the 23rd of September 2018, two days after his arrest, the advocate paid him a visit at Gigiri Police Station and sought his instructions on the murder case.

In the application which will be heard on 27th November, Obado says that he did give Wajackoyah instructions to represent him in the case.

He intimated to me that he had done a lot of consultancy work with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

“He showed me correspondence between himself and the two offices and I was convinced that indeed he had had good knowledge in criminal law practice,” says Obado.

Wajackoyah confirmed to him that the two offices had cleared him to be his advocate with the assurance that there would be no conflict of interest.

The governor argues that the advocate has privileged information and that he is apprehensive that the same may be revealed and/or shared with the prosecution in the course of the proceedings.

The Governor avers that the advocate started issues when he (Obado) was arraigned in Court on 24th September 2018 where there were several other counsel acting for him.

“On taking the quorum, Wajackoyah was excluded from even though he was present in Court,” says Obado.

He further states that in the subsequent court appearance, the lawyer introduced himself as the advocate for the victims and continues to be on record for them to date.

For the above reasons, the Governor reasonably believes that Wajackoya’s representation of the victims is aimed at advancing a certain mischief against him since there is a glaring conflict of interests on his part.

In addition he says that the continued appearance of the Advocate for the victims in this matter will breach his Constitutional right to a fair trial and cause great miscarriage of justice.