Tortured Dutch Tycoon Murdered and Buried in His Home
By: Jax Hudur
Tags: Murder, True Story, Domestic Violence, Crime, True Crime

Tortured Dutch Tycoon Murdered and Buried in His Home

From the outside they had everything, at home danger lurked

In a crime that shocked the people of Kenya, the remains of a missing Dutch business tycoon, Mr. Tob Cohen, was found in an empty underground water tank in his lavish suburban home in Nairobi, which he installed to capture rainwater to irrigate his garden. Alas, for 55 days, it was his grave. As the police found his body, his hands, neck, and legs were bound together; he was viciously tortured before being killed and dumped. He was 71 years old.

Tob Cohen was born in the Netherlands and was described by his sister, Gabrie Van Straten, as a very optimistic, full of energy businessman. He was an educated man with a degree in marketing from the Nyeronde Business Universiteit in the Netherlands and obtained another degree in Business Administration from the University of Oregon.

According to his LinkedIn, he worked as a sales manager for a company based in Rotterdam. Thereafter, he joined a company called Ahold as Head of Marketing before being head-hunted for a senior position in Philips Electronics in Eindhoven. Cohen became a rising star within the organization and was relocated to Kingston, Jamaica as Philip’s regional managing director in the Caribbean. In 1987 he immigrated to Kenya and was promoted to CEO of Philips Electronics in East Africa.

Tob Cohen fell in love with Kenya’s beautiful landscapes and her good-natured people. He decided to stay in the country after he left Philips. While there, he noticed tourists flocking to Kenya’s marvellous scenery and Safari with one exception; the country’s Safari tourism industry lacked the provision of golfing tours. Cohen being a seasoned businessman, snapped up this business opportunity to provide the much-needed service, establishing Tob’s Kenya Golf Safaris Ltd in 1991.

The business flourished and, for a while, enjoyed being the leader of a niche market with no competition. He dominated the golf tourism sector and often acted as the country’s golf spokesman, representing Kenya internationally to attract more tourists to the country. His company, Tob’s Kenya Golf Safaris, was crowned Africa’s best golf tour operator in 2018.

A delighted Tob in accepting the award said, “I am very delighted that we are Africa’s best golf tour operator in 2018, It was a long fight, but I think we deserve it after 28 years in this business. Kenya is a wonderful destination for sporting into golf courses, the best weather in the world, the best nature-friendly people English speaking and I welcome everybody to come to Kenya and to Africa.” He was smitten.

Manipulated into a Marriage

Tob Cohen married Sarah Wairimu, who was his personal assistant, in 2007. The couple had no children, but Sarah had a daughter from a previous marriage. Cohen was a good father to Sarah’s daughter and made sure she received a good education in his home country, the Netherlands. However, in 2014, seven years into the marriage, Cohen’s ordeal began, although his lawyer refutes this and believes Cohen’s misfortunes started much earlier.

According to the lawyer Mr. Danstan Omari, Sarah and Cohen were dating, but Sarah had a sinister plan in motion. She first threatened Cohen with deportation and losing his lucrative business by using her influence and the backing of powerful people whom he does not name. Sarah hails from the most powerful tribe in Kenya, the Kikuyu. The incumbent president of Kenya and his predecessor are both Kikuyu. For Cohen, it was either the loss of everything or marrying Sarah. He relented, but she was not done. Shortly after the marriage, she asked for half of everything he owned. Mr. Omari’s claims are further strengthened by Sarah herself, who said, “Tob had crossed his (John Michuki’s) path by insulting him and his company and was to be deported. I appealed, and he was let free.”

John Michuki was a cabinet minister and owner of Windsor Golf & Country Club, making him a business rival. The question then is, why would the Kenyan government deport a prominent business person of Tob Cohen’s calibre for trading insults with a business rival irrespective of the ministerial title? What influence did Sarah have to sway Mr. Michuki and stop Cohen’s deportation? She said this to thwart blame from herself for her marriage’s breakdown. Nevertheless, it gives credence to the lawyer’s allegations. If Sarah were powerful enough to stop a minister who wanted to deport Cohen, what could stop her from orchestrating the deportation herself?

Domestic Abuse

Tob Cohen filed for divorce in 2018. The couple was not on speaking terms, but the matter took a turn for the worse. In February 2019, Sarah beat and pushed Cohen off a flight of stairs, and a bloodied Cohen went to his study and recorded his injuries. He could barely speak in the video but managed to say, “Sarah did this, nobody else.” Four days later, she assaulted him again, causing cuts and wounds to his body.

Cohen reported the assault to the police and urged them to evict Sarah from their home. The police took no action as Sarah left the country to join her daughter in the Netherlands. She came back but faced no arrest; she was not charged at all.

According to court papers, Cohen claimed that Sarah denied him his conjugal rights for four years. If Cohen was sex-starved, his problems only multiplied as he was beaten according to the same papers. To refute this, Sarah said, “The applicant (Cohen) underwent a prostrate operation which seems to have affected his ability to engage often or effectively in the manner that he did before the operation.” She also went on to say that Cohen was “unreasonable, aggressive and rude, and he would often come home in the early hours of the morning in an extremely intoxicated state.”

There was a problem; Sarah was contradicting herself as she later claimed, “The very intention of the petitioner is to ensure my removal from the matrimonial home so that he can have the home to himself to entertain other women of his choice as he pleases.” If Cohen were impotent, as she earlier claimed, why would she think he would “entertain women of his choice”?

Suspects

According to media reports, Cohen’s murder was planned three months before his death. The intent was to stop the divorce case as it would mean financial ruin for Sarah Wairimu.

Sarah was also involved in an affair with a married man named Peter Karanja. Mr. Karanja and Sarah Wairimu’s love affair was a match made in heaven as both were going through divorce proceedings over domestic violence. The key suspects, according to the police, were Sarah Wairimu and her lover Peter Karanja.

Timeline

It was reported that eight days before Cohen went missing, he had written to Kenya’s director of Prosecution expressing that his marriage had broken down, citing mistreatment and pressing assault charges against his wife.

A day before Cohen’s disappearance, he visited Parklands Police station to follow up on the charges he had already pressed. He was frightened.

On the night Cohen disappeared, he called his long-term friend Mr. Patrick Muiruri a former legislator and informed him that his wife Sarah would be responsible if anything were to happen to him. Mr. Muiruri was the last person to have ever spoken to him.

July 20th, 2019, Mr. Tob Cohen disappeared and his lawyers received letters from “Cohen,” instructing them to withdraw the divorce case and the assault charges he had filed against Sarah. The Dutch Embassy in Kenya also received a letter from Sarah Wairimu, asking for assistance as she claimed her husband needed medical help.

Few days after it emerged that Cohen was missing, Sarah Wairimu told detectives that Tob Cohen traveled to Thailand for medical purposes.

September 12th, 2019, She was arrested for suspicion of murder and presented to the courts. She was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation to determine her competency to stand trial.

September 13th, 2019, Tob Cohen’s tortured body was found.

At every turn, Tob Cohen was failed by the authorities despite numerous attempts to highlight that his life was indeed in danger. He received no response from the police.

Police investigation

The police built their case around Sarah Wairimu as they determined that Tob Cohen had not left the country contrary to her prior claims. They also found that the CCTV system in Cohen’s residence had been replaced a day before his disappearance. Further inquiries revealed that workers at home had also been coached. The key to the investigation was Cohen’s phone; it showed that it never left his residence, making the authorities to treat his home as a crime scene.

The body of Tob Cohen was discovered in an underground water tank in his home 55 days after he went missing. The Kenyan Police arrested Sarah Wairimu and Peter Karanja as the prime suspects of the murder. Both were released on bail. The police also charged a sitting Kenyan judge for coaching Sarah Wairimu after police discovered of his involvement with Sarah months before Cohen’s disappearance. The director of criminal investigations on the case, Mr. George Kinoti speaking of the judge’s involvement, said, “We are definitely charging him with murder. We have established a prima facie case, and we are sure it can stand in court.” He was later released on bail.

Sarah Wairimu hired a prominent top lawyer Mr. Philip Murgor who won high-profile cases. Despite this, the court of public opinion has already judged Sarah Wairimu as the murderer.

Tob Cohen was laid to rest in Nairobi’s Jewish cemetery on Tuesday, September 24th, 2019. Reports state that Sarah Wairimu was not in his will; he left her with nothing. All his properties and businesses were left to his siblings and their children. Sarah Wairimu is in court contesting the will, and the case is ongoing. To date, no one has been brought to justice for the murder of Tob Cohen.

Considering the brutal way the victim was killed and the available police evidence, why is the prime suspect not only out but challenging the will? The police did their job but will the courts do theirs when sitting judges are being accused of involvement in the murder?

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