• Wairimu was arrested on Wednesday following investigations into disappearance of Cohen.
• Court told investigations show she coached potential witnesses to give false testimony.
Image: STANLEY NJENGA
The wife of missing Dutch businessman Tob Cohen will remain in police custody until Monday when a Kiambu court will rule on an application by the DCI to have her detained for 14 days.
Sarah Wairimu Kamotho was presented before chief magistrate Patricia Gichohi who directed that she be remanded at Muthaiga police station.
Upon request and with police supervision she can visit her matrimonial home on Farasi Lane in Kitsuru, now treated as a scene of crime.
Cohen was reported missing on July 19 0r 20 and has not been heard from. His mobile is off.
Investigating officer Maxwell Otieno of the DCI homicide section told the court Wairimu was arrested on Wednesday at around 7pm following investigations into the disappearance of Cohen, an international businessman.
Otieno said preliminary investigations established Wairimu coached some potential witnesses to give false testimony. He said the witnesses later recanted their first statement and gave the true version of what transpired.
“We have interrogated Wairimu two times at her home and three times at the DCI headquarters. But all this time we had not treated her as a suspect but as we gathered more information, that is when we arrested her and she is a suspect in the missing of her husband,” Otieno told the court.
DCI says Cohen was apprehensive about his life and shared with some of his close friends threats he said were issued by Wairimu.
Otieno said it is highly probable Cohen was kidnapped from his home by Wairimu and associates to an unknown place and probably murdered.
Otieno told the court he needed time to investigate letters allegedly authored by Cohen and addressed to advocate Judy Thongori, OCS Parklands, OCS Spring Valley and OCPD Gigiri, which were found to be forgeries.
The DCI wants Wairimu detained since some witnesses had expressed fears of being threatened as they were former employees of the couple.
The court also heard there are other employees who have not yet recorded statements and the suspect could interfere with them.
The investigating officer said Cohen's residence is a scene of crime which needed to be sealed off as forensic investigations are being conducted.
Otieno informed the court that on February 8 Wairimu is reported to have pushed Cohen off a flight of stairs causing him to fall and cut his forehead.
While lying on the ground bleeding, Wairimu came on top of him and started punching and kicking him. Cohen is said to have sought treatment at the MP Shah hospital and on February 13 reported the assault at Parklands police station.