Wairimu Told Detectives Missing Husband Tob Cohen Was in Thailand

Sarah Wairimu told detectives investigating the 2019 disappearance of her husband, Dutch businessman Tob Cohen, that the 71-year-old was in Thailand while he was listed as a missing person in Nairobi, Kenya, the Daily Nation reported. The claim was made to officers during a search that ended with the discovery of the businessman's body at the couple's home in the capital.

Cohen, a former chief executive of Philips East Africa, had lived and worked in Kenya for decades. He was reported missing in July 2019 after his regular contact with relatives and associates stopped, setting off a search centred on Nairobi, where he lived with Wairimu in Kitisuru, an upmarket suburb of the capital. The couple had been married for more than a decade.

While Cohen was listed as missing, Wairimu told detectives that her husband had travelled to Thailand. Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations worked the case through the weeks that followed, and Wairimu was taken into custody in August 2019, before the question of the businessman's whereabouts had been answered.

Weeks after the Thailand claim was made to investigators, the answer emerged at the couple's own compound. On September 13, 2019, Cohen's body was found in an underground septic tank within the grounds of the Kitisuru residence. The discovery turned the missing person inquiry into a murder investigation, and Wairimu was subsequently charged with murder. She pleaded not guilty and has maintained that position through the trial.

The case became one of the most closely followed criminal matters in Kenya in recent years. The disappearance, the arrest and the recovery of the body from the family compound dominated national headlines in 2019, and the court proceedings that followed have continued to draw press coverage in the years since.

The inquiry examined the businessman's movements, his communications and the circumstances at the Kitisuru property. Cohen's failure to make contact had been reported by those close to him, and police treated the home he shared with Wairimu as a central site in the investigation following her arrest.

The murder trial has been heard at the High Court in Nairobi. Prosecution witnesses have included police officers who worked on the disappearance inquiry, relatives of the businessman and specialists who examined material connected to the case. The proceedings have stretched across several years, punctuated by adjournments and changes in the bench hearing the matter. Wairimu was remanded in custody during part of the pre-trial period as preparations for the hearings got under way.

Alongside the criminal case, Cohen's estate has produced its own litigation. A will whose authenticity was disputed was presented in connection with the estate, and Cohen's sister, Gabrielle van Straaten, contested the document. An expert found signs of forgery in the disputed will, The Star reported from the proceedings.

The estate at stake includes the Kitisuru home where Cohen's body was recovered. Testimony and court filings in the matter have touched on the state of the couple's marriage, which had been marked by disputes in the period before the businessman disappeared, and on wrangles over property.

Before his death, Cohen was a well-known figure in Nairobi business circles, and his disappearance drew attention from both Kenyan and international media. The murder trial and the estate dispute have moved on separate tracks through Kenya's courts, but both stem from the events set in motion by his disappearance in July 2019.

Detectives who handled the 2019 investigation have been among the witnesses called to give evidence in the trial, including on what they were told by Wairimu during the weeks her husband was considered missing. The trial continues at the High Court in Nairobi.