Kenyan Wife of Slain Dutch Tycoon Tob Cohen Speaks Out

Sarah Wairimu Kamotho, the estranged wife of slain Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen has accused police of planting his body in their house’s compound in a bid to frame her.

Ms. Wairimu, who is the prime suspect in the murder of Cohen, spoke though her attorney Philip Murgor on Saturday. 

Addressing the media, Murgor said the discovery of Cohen’s body inside an underground water tank at his palatial home in Kitusuru, Nairobi was shrouded in mystery. Ms. Wairimu was sharing the house with the deceased.

“I spoke to Sarah and she is saddened by the fact that it is now confirmed that her husband has passed on. But she asks the media to either wait for the trial or print stuff that you can support. She pleads with the media to give her a chance,” said Murgor.

Murgor further claimed that the conduct of detectives investigating the disappearance of Cohen suggested that there was something they were hiding.

“They [detectives] did a very thorough examination of the premises. Sarah was with them and was helping them and even consented to giving a DNA sample,” said Murgor. 

“When they got to the garden, something very interesting happened after they had seen a manhole which is about five meters from where the body was eventually found. Somebody announced that the search would be called off to the next day.” 

He further alleged that detectives asked for the house keys before they left then ordered two caretakers at the home to stay indoors. They proceeded with the search on Wednesday “and did about 99 percent of it", said Murgor.

“The one percent of the places that remained was the corner where they found the body on Friday) and the opposite corner,” said Murgor.

Murgor said he was shocked after detectives arraigned Ms. Wairimu in Milimani Law Courts on Thursday to face murder charges even before his body was found. The following day, the body of Cohen was found.

“On Friday, at about 2 pm, my team had an important meeting in Kiambu regarding this case. One of the lawyers, George Ouma, decided to call those caretakers to get an update of anything that was happening. The caretaker only said two words ‘wako hapa’ (they are here) before the phone was taken away from him. We realized something was wrong and abandoned the meeting we were heading to and drove straight to Kitisuru,” he recalled.

When they arrived at Cohen’s home, Murgor said they found officers clearing debris at the site where the body was retrieved.

Murgor questioned why Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti announced that the body of Cohen had been found even before it had been taken out of the tank and confirmed it was the tycoon.

This, according to him, was proof that the body was deliberately planted in the water tank to frame his client.

Sarah, who has been in custody for three weeks now, is currently detained at Langata Women’s Prison pending mental assessment to ascertain whether she is fit to take a plea.