Sharon Otieno and her unborn child were brutally murdered three weeks ago and dumbed in Kodera forest, Homa Bay county.
Reports have emerged that the 26 year old student at Rongo University had an affair with the Migori governor Okoth Obado who has been linked to Sharon’s pregnancy.
Following her murder, Sharon has left behind three other children believed to be from her previous marriage, who will now be raised by their grandfather and mother
According to Sharon’s father Douglas Otieno,“It is like we have given birth again. We are glad that we have Sharon’s three children, a boy and two girls and we will raise them to the best of our ability.”
In addition Sharon’s Mother Ms Auma said that Sharon’s youngest child reminds them so much of their late daughter. “The playful toddler resembles her so much.”
“Luckily, she has left behind a generation,” Sharon’s parents say wistfully, even though they know in their hearts that nothing on earth can replace their dead child, whose life an assassin’s cruel blade painfully took away.
Her children now spend their night at their grandfather’s bed, just so they can feel the warmth of a ‘parent’.
Mr Otieno had, since the death of his daughter, maintained studious silence. He became taciturn and reclusive, no doubt weighed down by memories of his slain daughter whom he describes as a jewel.
“I go to the Med25 International-Kenya Hospital Mortuary in Mbita where my daughter’s body is, almost on daily basis. There, I often ask the attendants to bring her body to me. I sit beside it, touching and observing it. It satisfies my heart to just see it,” he says.
“I just sit next to her. Seeing her brings me some relief. I feel good, happy and satisfied that she is still with us. Her being dead does not scare me, she is my daughter anyway and I loved her very much. Her killers have robbed me off a pearl,” he says.
Mr Otieno having worked in a hospital before and seeing dead bodies he is not scared seeing and sityting to his daughter’s body every time.
At times he visits the morgue early in the morning while other times he stays up late into the night.
“Sharon is my child, I fathered her and she deserves all respect and love, even in her death,” says Mr Otieno
Ms Auma got married to her husband as soon as she completed her secondary education and gave birth to their first born daughter, Sharon, months later.
Together, they have three other children, the last born being a standard five pupil. Mr Otieno says at times he feels like his intestines are being shredded to pieces as memories of his daughter weigh him down. Ms Auma says Sharon’s death has left a very big gap in their lives.
“She was very close to me; she was my confidante and friend. She knew all development plans in this family, all our pains and happiness. She kept telling us to pray for her so that she could assist us to have a decent home. I feel lonely now,” Ms Auma recounts.
She says they shared a lot with her daughter whom she viewed as her age-mate, given that she gave birth to her when still young.
She says that, in character, Sharon took after her father; a straightforward and no-nonsense person.