Until the gruesome murder of slain second-year Rongo University Student Sharon Otieno three weeks ago, the name Zachary Okoth Obado was not so common.
But as fate would have it, the now embattled Migori governor has become a household name. He is in the eye of a storm after he was implicated as the mastermind of Sharon’s murder who happens to have been involved with him romantically.
He has currently been remanded at the Industrial Area prison pending determination of his bail application on Thursday, September 26, 2018.
However, little is known about Obado’s life before his first and successful bid into politics in 2013 when he vied for Migori governorship.
The 61-year-old is a Kenyatta University graduate with a Master’s degree in Strategic Management and a bachelor’s degree holder in education from the same institution.
He started off his career in public service as a secondary school teacher with his teaching subjects being physics and accounting. He was first posted at St Joseph's Rapogi High School in Migori County in the 90’s.
Here is where he met Michael Oyamo who has been serving as his Personal Assistant. Oyamo was his student.“Oyamo was my classmate and Obado taught us physics in Form One in 1996. He later taught us accounting in Form Three,” a former student at the school told the Standard.
Oyamo is also in police custody over Sharon’s murder. He was the first suspect to be arrested by DCI detectives as soon as the murder probe began.
Obado taught in few other schools and he never showed interest in joining politics. Those who knew him then, described him as a dedicated and calm teacher who never missed church.
He later quit teaching and joined the Kenya Sugar Board as Awendo zone director. A few years later, the father of three was elected the board’s chairman.
It is at this time that he invested in several businesses among them real estate.
Pundits say that his urge to join national political was birthed here and with the financial muscle from his businesses, he defied the political tide in Luo-Nyanza to clinch Migori governorship on the little-known People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2013.
Obado later decamped to ODM where his influence almost rocked the operations of the party last year in April after chaos punctuated the opening of ODM offices in Migori.
He was fined Sh2 million by the disciplinary committee of the Raila Odinga led party.
Fast forward to last year’s general polls, Obado, yet again, put up a brave battle that saw him defend his seat successfully on an ODM ticket.
With murder charges hanging on his neck, it remains to be seen what happens next to the controversy-ridden governor.