Court allows DPP to withdraw murder charges against Sarah Wairimu

Tob Cohen's widow Sarah Wairimu. [Stafford Ondego,Standard]

The High Court in Nairobi has allowed the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji to withdraw murder charges against Tob Cohen's widow Sarah Wairimu and her co-accused Peter Karanja.

Justice Daniel Ogembo said on Tuesday, December 6 that Haji was now free to file an inquest to establish the facts surrounding the death of the Dutch tycoon.

Cohen's body was retrieved from a septic tank at his Kitisuru home in Nairobi on September 13, 2019.

His widow, Sarah Wairimu, was arrested and charged as the main suspect in his murder.

The initial charges indicated that Wairimu and her co-accused Peter Karanja, a businessman, allegedly committed the offence between July 19 and July 20, 2019.

The suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges, with Wairimu alleging that Cohen was killed elsewhere and his body, thereafter, dumped in the septic tank at his Nairobi homestead.

After the DPP recently applied to withdraw the case against her and Karanja, Wairimu said she knows who killed Cohen, and is willing to disclose their identities in an inquest.

According to Wairimu, Cohen's killers were two prominent people affiliated to the previous Jubilee administration.

She said the suspects killed Cohen so that they could forcibly access his wealth.

Haji, who has expressed the intent of filing an inquest, said the inquiry will "enable the contradictions that have affected the proceeding of this matter to be heard in detail by all parties".

"In addition, it will provide an opportunity for parties to present any information that had not been explored substantially before the court," Haji said on November 30.