Migori Governor Okoth Obado shared cells with a suspect in the shooting of former Garissa County Finance Executive Idris Muktar, five Kenya Revenue Authority officials and those from the Kenya Ports Authority who were arrested on Friday.
And just like any other detainee, the governor was not accorded any special treatment at the Gigiri Police Station cells.
CLOTHING
He slept on the floor with no mattress, ate what the rest of the remandees ate and took a shower at the cells’ bathrooms.
Over the weekend, Sharon Otieno’s boyfriend was dressed in heavy casual clothing— including socks and a hoodie to shield him from the cold and mosquitoes.
On Sunday morning, Mr Obado and the other inmates took tea and three slices of bread and had a meal of rice, beans and cabbages for lunch.
Only his wife Hellen, son and lawyers Rodgers Sagana and Cliff Ombeta were allowed to visit him, with sources telling the Nation that police officers restricted the duration of visit and listened to their conversations.
The media, visitors from Migori County and some lawyers were not allowed to see the governor who was rumoured to have fallen sick on Saturday.
“The governor is fine. He is healthy and has not fallen ill or taken anywhere for any treatment,” Lawyer Cliff Ombeta said after visiting him.
Gigiri police chief Richard Muguai also dispelled rumours that Mr Obado had collapsed and taken to hospital.
The governor, he said, had not shown any signs of being ill.
Mr Obado will, together with four other people, be arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts midmorning today, in connection to the murder of Ms Otieno.
FOETUS
He had on Friday morning been taken to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters where he recorded a statement before being arrested and taken to the cells.
Ms Otieno’s body was discovered in a thicket near Oyugis on September 4, a day after she and Nation Journalist Barrack Oduor had been abducted.
Mr Oduor escaped from the kidnappers by jumping out of the abductors’ moving vehicle.
Autopsy on Ms Otieno’s body revealed that she was strangled, stabbed eight times and probably raped.
The foetus in her womb, according to the autopsy, was also stabbed to death.
DCI boss George Kinoti commissioned a team of investigators to probe the apparent murder and so far many people have been questioned and some arrested.
Those in cells include Mr Obado’s Personal Assistant Michael Oyamo, Former Kanyidoto MCA Lawrence Mula, taxi driver Jack Gombe, Mr Obado’s aide and a clerk in Migori County Caspal Obiero and Mr Obado’s bodyguard Elvis Okoth Omondi.
On September 11, Mr Obado was questioned at the DCI offices in Migori, where he admitted that he knew Sharon, had an affair with her, but denied he commissioned her murder.