Sarah Cohen denies murdering her husband in fresh charge
![Sarah Wairimu](/resource/image/4900502/landscape_ratio2x1/320/160/7058ccb7306194bf8bf8a852d2e7b626/VS/wairimu.jpg)
Sarah Wairimu when she appeared before the Kibera High Court on January 24, 2025.
Ms Sarah Wairimu was on Wednesday charged afresh with the murder of her Dutch husband Tob Cohen six years ago.
Ms Wairimu denied murdering Cohen, an offence she allegedly committed on the night of July 19 and 20, 2019.
She denied the charge before Justice Diana Kavdza at the High Court in Kibera and the court ordered that she be remanded at Lang’ata Women’s Prison until February 3, when her bail application will be argued.
The Dutch tycoon was reported missing for several weeks before his decomposing body was retrieved from a septic tank at their palatial home in Kitisuru, Nairobi.
Ms Wairimu was charged alongside Peter Njoroge Karanja after spending 37 days in remand, in 2019.
They were later released on bond but then Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji terminated the case in November 2022, opting for an inquest. The DPP then terminated the inquest last year.
Earlier, Justice Kavedza ruled in favour of Ms Wairimu when she rejected an application by the prosecution to subject her to fresh mental assessment.
Justice Kavedza ruled that she does not require to be subjected to a fresh mental assessment since she had been going through a trial before an inquest was ordered to establish the cause of death.
“The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Renson Ingonga has not presented cogent evidence as to why the accused herein should be subjected to a fresh mental assessment yet she had been undergoing through a trial a few months ago,” ruled Justice Kavedza.
The judge noted that Sarah was subjected to a psychiatrists’ mental test when she was arrested over the death of the Nairobi golf organiser in 2019 and was found to be fit to stand trial for the capital offence.
“I agree with the defence counsel contention that the accused person is mentally fit and does not require a second mental assessment in the fresh case,” she said.
Her lawyer Conrad Maloba applied for her to be release on bond but the prosecution said the application should be made formally, so that they can respond to it as they will be opposing her release on bond.
“We shall be opposing the release of the accused on bond. I pray this court directs she files a formal application to enable the investigating officer file an affidavit outlining the reasons for the objection,” senior assistant DPP Vincent Monda said.
Formal application
The judge ordered the accused persons through defence counsel to file a formal application.
Ms Wairimu said she was called by the director of homicide, Mr Martin Nyanguto, on January 22, allegedly informing her to go and collect her items that had earlier been confiscated by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) during the probe into the murder.
She proceeded the following day, only to be arrested and detained at Kilimani Police Station.
In a petition she has filed before the High Court, Ms Wairimu has challenged her prosecution, saying the DPP was using the same evidence which he had admitted had integrity issues.
She said the decision to charge her was not founded on good faith but a clear abuse of prosecutorial powers and had the effect of denying Ms Wairimu her constitutional rights to fair trial.