If I die, blame Sarah: Ex-MP recalls Cohen's chilling phone call

Tob Cohen. [File, Standard]

Former Gatundu Member of Parliament Patrick Kariuki yesterday told the High Court that former businessman Tob Cohen had allegedly expressed fear for his life, with his widow being allegedly at the centre of it.

Muiruri, who alleged that his friendship with the deceased had blossomed at the golf course, further told High Court Judge Diana Kavedza that Cohen had, on the night of July 19, 2019, allegedly called through his mobile phone.

The politician said that Cohen had allegedly expressed terrible distress, claiming that he was fearing for his life as his alleged troubles with Sarah Wairimu Cohen had boiled over further.

He claimed that mostly, they frequented Muthaiga Golf Club, Kiambu Golf Club, Royal Golf Club and Thika Golf Club to tee.

“We played once a month,” he said, adding that it was a person he knew very well.

Asked by Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecution Vincent Monda what transpired on July 15, 2019, he claimed that they organised a four-ball tournament at Vet Golf Club.

“Four ball was myself, the late Tob Cohen, Colonel Githiri (retired), and Colonel Kigotho,” he narrated, adding that while they were teeing, the deceased allegedly confided in him that his marriage was on the rocks.

“Tob told me while the other two were listening; he told me he had problems with his wife Sarah, and he told me he was divorcing her. I asked him a question to him because that surprised me. After all, I was not aware of the marital problems: what has Sarah done, what are the grounds?” he testified, adding that for four years they had allegedly not been in bed together.

He added that Tob allegedly claimed that she had stolen his title documents for their house at Kitisuru.

“He couldn’t find documents of the property. He also told me she had stolen some money from the company and was putting up a hotel at Othaya,” he claimed, adding that the firm was Kenya Golf Safaris Travel Limited.

The witness told the court that Cohen then showed them the hotel from his mobile phone.

“He showed us a gruesome picture of his face in glasses and a lot of blood, whereby in the video you see him crying, saying, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah,” he continued.

Muiruri claimed he personally witnessed blood on the front of Cohen’s face and broken glasses.

He narrated that Cohen had allegedly informed him that he had reported the assault, and had hired the late Judy Thongori to handle the divorce case and Danstan Omari to handle the assault case.

The court heard that he had reported the assault at Spring Valley and Parklands Police Stations.

He claimed that when he learned that Cohen went missing from former President Cousin Ngegi Muigai, he went to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to report murder and not a missing person.

“I knew something was very bad; I knew something had happened to Tobs,” he said, adding that after getting there he met Nation Media Group reporter John Kamau, alongside DCI officer Clement Mwangi.

He said he reported to Mwangi about Cohen’s murder. “Because I knew Cohen had been murdered,” he alleged.

Sarah Wairimu during court proceedings in the ongoing Tob Cohen murder case. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

Kariuki alleged that Cohen had intimated that in the event anything happened to him, his wife had a hand.

"PK, PK, if anything bad happens to me, if I'm found dead somewhere, tell them it's Sarah behind it," Muiruri quoted Tob as saying.

Cohen's lifeless body was discovered in a septic tank at his Kitisuru home in Spring Valley, Nairobi, in 2019. The grim discovery occurred while his wife, Wairimu and her then-co-accused, Peter Karanja, had been arrested and held in police custody.

He was reported missing between July 19 and July 20, 2019.

Wairimu had filed a case challenging her prosecution. She argued that the DPP intended to use the same evidence that was questioned in the fresh case.

She claimed that on January 22, 2025, the DCI called her lawyer and asked her to collect the items she had left.

The widow narrated that, in a dramatic turn of events, she was arrested and taken to the Kibera High Court on fresh charges.

She said that while the DPP had raised integrity issues regarding the investigations, subjecting her to another trial was double jeopardy.

“The present criminal proceedings against me amount to double jeopardy since the same is founded on the same evidence in Milimani High Court Criminal Case Number 60 of 2019, The Republic vs Sarah Wairimu Cohen and Peter Karanja. Therefore, the decision of the Respondent to subject me to evidence which it has admitted has integrity issues is not founded on good faith, but it is a clear case of abuse of prosecutorial powers and has the effect of denying me my constitutional rights to a fair trial,” she claimed.

Wairimu further said she is an interested party in a case filed by Court of Appeal Judge Sankale Ole Kantai, who filed a case against the Director of Criminal Investigations and the DPP over the Cohen murder saga.

Cohen’s murder has been, over the years, marred by drama, with DCI being central to it.

Shortly after he was discovered in a septic hole in his home, the matter took a legal twist. A succession dispute broke out, and two wills surfaced, with each side claiming theirs to be the genuine document. Wairimu, on the one hand, asserted that she was in possession of his original will and denied the legitimacy of any other version.

She had an affidavit indicating that they lived together as husband and wife in 1998 and then held a Kikuyu customary ceremony in July 2006.

Wairimu stated that they jointly purchased a plot on Farasi Lane in 2000, registered in Cohen's name by agreement. They began building their home on the land in 2007, asserting joint ownership due to their marriage, with equal rights for both.

On the other hand, lawyer Chege Kirundi presented a second will that he argued was the authentic original. He stated that it had been unsealed in 2019, immediately following Cohen's passing and just before his interment.

It locked her out of the wealth and divided his estate between his sister, nephew, and niece.

The will explained that Cohen did not have a child.

The court intervened by suspending access to the estate pending the case resolution. Amid the fierce estate battle, Wairimu was remanded in Lang'ata Women's Prison.

She is now in the same prison as the trial proceeds.