Questions have emerged over the whereabouts of Migori Governor Okoth Obado days after the gruesome murder of Rongo University student Sharon Otieno.
Otieno's body was found on Wednesday morning in a forest in Homa Bay County, moments after she was kidnapped alongside Nation reporter Barrack Odour.
The second-year medical records and information student was seven months pregnant at the time of her killing.
According to her mother, Melida Auma, Otieno had confided in her that Governor Obado was the father of her unborn baby.
"I remember at her early stages of pregnancy, I asked her to tell us who was responsible for it and she told me it was Governor Obado. At one time she even said he had promised to buy her a house, take care of her pregnancy and the baby when it was born," Auma told journalists on Wednesday.
Odour, who held several meetings with the slain student before she was brutally murdered, also alleged that Otieno had told him that Obado wanted her to have an abortion, a demand she had rejected.
However, since the disturbing news started trending, the county boss has kept a low profile, refusing to come out and address the media over the issue.
His press secretary, Nicholas Anyuor, has distanced his boss from the saga adding Obado will only speak to police if required to.
"I said the governor will not be drawn into the matter which is under police investigation, because he has not been implicated,” the press secretary said.
Obado has not reported to his Migori offices or seen at his Rapogi home in Uriri constituency the whole of this week.
The Nation reported that the county boss was supposed to attend the ongoing African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in Kigali, Rwanda, on Tuesday but he pulled a no-show.
He had been invited as the chairman of the Council of Governors (CoG) Agriculture Committee.
"It is true the governor was to represent the CoG at the event in Rwanda but I cannot authoritatively tell you about his whereabouts. Let your Nairobi team check for him in the city,” said a source.
Asked where Obado was, Anyuor replied: "Why do you want to know where the governor is? I am his press secretary and whatever I tell you is his response."