The murder scripts are similar and both victims are Dutchmen.
One of the murders happened in Mombasa's Nyali estate in 2016. The body of the victim – Jacobus van Der Goes, 77 – was found in a septic tank in his compound.
The other murder victim was billionaire Tob Cohen, killed two months ago in Nairobi's Kitisuru estate. The body was pulled out of a water tank in his compound. He was 71.
Among those arrested in connection with the murder of Jacobus' murder was his gardener.
In both murders, wealth is a common denominator. Cohen's widow, Sarah Wairimu, is a murder suspect.
Police found Jacobus's body on June 14, 2016, six months after he was reported missing.
The badly decomposed body of the retiree and murder weapons – a hammer and crowbar – were wrapped in a mattress.
But as fate would have it, gardener John Ochieng–who was last year sentenced to death for the Dutchman’s murder, had made numerous cash withdrawals from Equity Bank in Kericho and Mombasa using his employer's ATM cards.
His co-accused Joseph Ogolla was sentenced to life in prison for being an accessory to the murder.
The two had denied committing the offence between January 4 and 6, 2016.
A third suspect, Stephen Okoth, was acquitted after Justice Asenath Ongeri said the prosecution failed to link him to the murder.
Then Mombasa county CID boss Pius Macharia said the gardener, who was living with Jacobus, organised the murder so as to get his wealth. In court, a medical report indicated that Jacobus died of severe blunt force trauma to the left side of the head.
“I have considered mitigations by the accused. Though they are remorseful, they murdered an innocent man in the foulest way. The court proceeds to sentence Ochieng to death for the offence of murder and Ogolla to life imprisonment for being an accessory to murder," the judge ruled.
Part of the evidence relied upon was call data which indicated that Ochieng was in the same area as Jacobus on the day he went missing. Withdrawals amounting to Sh300,000 from the victim’s account using his ATM card were also used as proof.
Ochieng pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing by a servant when he was convicted. He was also found with the deceased’s digital camera. He and Ogolla, the court noted, had organised to sell the Dutchman's car.
As late as February, family tussles still played out as the Dutchman’s relatives fought over his property.
His Kenyan ex-wife and firstborn daughter were on each other’s necks over the multimillion-shilling properties he left behind.
Daughter Ingrid van Der Goes and her husband Rene Adrianus claim to have been appointed the administrators of the properties in a will left by Jacobus while Jacobus' ex-wife Agnes Nanjala claims he died intestate.
The properties include a palatial home in Nyali, a residential flat in the Netherlands, a vehicle and several bank accounts in Kenya, the Netherlands and the UK.
In court documents, Ingrid claimed she was granted executive powers of the estate in her father’s will dated November 3, 2009.
She said the objection by Nanjala was incompetent and an abuse of the law and accused the ex-wife of failing to inform the court of other decisions such as their divorce.
She said Nanjala’s sole intention was to benefit twice, having previously benefited during the matrimonial and divorce proceedings.
Edited by R.Wamochie
