Cohen murder: Sarah Wairimu detained as DPP cites contradictory statements

Sarah Wairimu when she was presented before the the Kibera High Court on January 24, 2025. (Photo: ODPP)

By Joseph Ndunda
Monday, February 3, 2025

These inconsistencies in Sarah's response are part of what the DPP wants to use to prove that Sarah had a motive and intention of murdering Cohen. The witnesses worked for the suspect and lived in the matrimonial home along Farasi Lane in Lower Kabete, Nairobi County.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Renson Ingonga, has highlighted an attempt to interfere with witnesses and inconsistencies in statements made by Sarah Wairimu Kamotho, the prime suspect in the murder of her husband, Tob Cohen.

Ingonga now wants the High Court to detain Wairimu until her two former employees, listed as the star prosecution witnesses against her in the murder case, testify in court.

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Wairimu has been charged with murder contrary to Section 203, as read with Section 204 of the Penal Code, where she is accused of killing Cohen on the night of 19–20 July 2019, jointly with accomplices at large.

The Office of the DPP intends to rely on the evidence of the two witnesses, Wairimu's conduct during the disappearance of the deceased, and inconsistencies in her responses to investigators to build circumstantial evidence against her.

The two witnesses are former employees of the suspect. Senior assistant DPP Vincent Monda and his colleague Sarah Ogweno say the suspect will likely interfere with the two protected witnesses.

Monda and Ongweno relied on the affidavit of a veteran homicide investigator - Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Maxwell Otieno -to oppose bail and bond terms to demonstrate Wairimu's ability to interfere with the witnesses which they say would collapse their case against her.

"In the course of investigations, we established the Embassy of the Kingdom Netherlands had contacted the accused person (Wairimu) on July 25, 2019, to enquire on the whereabouts of the deceased and that she informed them that he (Cohen) had left the country (Kenya) for Thailand on July 20, 2019," states Otieno in the affidavit.

"Upon contacting the Kenyan Immigration Department, on information pertaining to the deceased's flight itinerary, on the stated dates, we received information that the deceased never travelled outside Kenya as alleged by the accused."

These inconsistencies in Wairimu's response are part of what the DPP wants to use to prove that Sarah had a motive and intention of murdering Cohen. The witnesses worked for the suspect and lived in the matrimonial home along Farasi Lane in Lower Kabete, Nairobi County.

The DPP says Wairimu had also interfered with the witness during the investigations of the murder before the deceased's body was recovered in a septic tank inside the compound.

These two are the witnesses the ODPP intends to use to demonstrate prior planning for the murder of Cohen at the opening of the case.

"After the murder (of Cohen) the accused person instructed her workers to lie about material facts clearly intimidating prosecution witnesses," Otieno's affidavit reads in part indicating the witnesses' statements on their intimidations were recorded.

"The accused person having been informed of the inquiry of the whereabouts of Cohen, she made a report of a missing person at the Spring Valley police station under Occurrence Book (OB number 17/6/8/2019."

The affidavit says Wairimu made attempts to contact the former employees to implore them not to testify in the case and there is apprehension that she is likely to coerce and influence them so that they do not attend the court.

The investigator says the court should take notice that the suspect is charged alongside others at large and if released on bond, she is likely to interfere with the arrest of the accomplices.