Sharon Otieno’s mother joins politics, set to vie for MCA seat on UDA ticket

Melida Auma, the mother of Sharon Otieno, a late Rongo University student who was murdered in 2018, has entered politics and will run for the Homa Bay Town West ward seat on the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) ticket.

Although it is not clear whether she has  been officially endorsed by the party led by Deputy President William Ruto, she hopes to secure the ticket next year. 

Ms Auma told the Nation that she had decided to run for an elective seat on a UDA ticket because she was unlikely to win an ODM ticket.

The Raila-led ODM party has majority support in the region, but this does not appear to bother Ms Auma, who is determined to provide a better future for her family.

“I decided to try the MCA seat because I want a better life for my children and grandchildren. It is tough, but I will try,” Ms Auma told the Nation. 

She also pointed an accusatory finger at the ODM leaders who were part of a  delegation of leaders who spoke against her daughter’s murder and vowed to support her then grieving family.

“I would have wanted ODM, but it is very difficult to get a ticket there. Furthermore, leaders from ODM who had vowed to stand with us before Sharon’s burial abandoned us immediately we lowered her body into the grave,” Ms Auma was quoted as saying. 

She also claimed that the leaders who had promised to pay the school fees for Sharon’s three children vanished after the burial.

Just a week ago, she was among 13 people arrested and thrown into police cells for holding a public gathering in Homa Bay. 

They would later be released, but after their arraignment in court where they were fined Ksh.2,000 for breaking COVID-19 rules. 

Meanwhile, she trusts in the Kenyan justice system that her late daughter will find justice. 

Sharon Otieno’s murder trial began in July this year, some three years after she was brutally murdered and her body dumped. 

The prosecution promised to prove their case against Governor Okoth Obado,  Michael Oyamo and Caspal Obiero.

Witness accounts will assist bring bits of evidence together to solve the riddle, Attorney Catherine Mwaniki, arguing for the State, said in her opening statement.

She told the Milimani court that evidence will show that Obado, his co-accused Michael Oyamo, and Caspal Obiero, as well as others who were not present in court, committed the crime.

“We will demonstrate how they created the opportunity facilitated the crime, orchestrated the cover-up of the murder of Otieno and the 28 weeks unborn baby and further how they willfully engaged in action to obstruct justice,” she told the court.

Sharon met Okoth Obado in November 2017, when she was a student at Rongo University and Obado was, and still is, the governor, according to state lawyer Mwaniki.

Mwaniki said that Obado benefited from Sharon’s and the unborn child’s deaths because he was the biological father.

She stated in her opening statements that the accused persons, along with others who were not present in court, inflicted the wounds and stabs on the two.