Sarah Wairimu, the suspect in the murder of her husband Tob Cohen, now sensationally claims the body could have been planted in her compound to frame her, an allegation she will have to prove in court as police build a case against key suspects.
Speaking through her lawyer Philip Murgor on Saturday, a day after Mr Cohen’s body was discovered dumped in a septic tank at the Kitisuru home she shared with the slain Dutchman, Ms Wairimu says the discovery of the body was shrouded in mystery and the police have not been forthcoming with information.
Mr Murgor, whose target incredibly included journalists, addressed an impromptu press conference in his office after visiting his client at Lang’ata Women’s Prison. On meeting with his client, Mr Murgor said, “I spoke to Sarah and she is saddened by the fact that it is now confirmed that her husband has passed on. But she asks that the media to either wait for the trial or print stuff that you can support. She pleads with the media to give her a chance.”
According to Mr Murgor, the conduct of the investigators since Tuesday has been curious and suggested they had something up their sleeves.
He said that on Tuesday, the defence lawyers learnt that the investigators were taking Ms Wairimu from Muthaiga Police Station to her home with scene of crime officers.
“They did a very thorough examination of the premises. Sarah was with them and was helping them and even consented to giving a DNA sample,” said Mr Murgor. He claimed the senior police officers went around the compound. “When they got to the garden, something very interesting happened after they had seen a manhole which is about five metres from where the body was eventually found. Somebody announced that the search would be called off to the next day,” said Mr Murgor.
Before the investigators left, Mr Murgor contends that they asked for the house keys then ordered the two caretakers at the home to stay indoors. The search continued on Wednesday “and did about 99 per cent of it”. “The one per cent of the places that remained was the corner where they found the body on Friday) and the opposite corner,” said Mr Murgor.
Then on Thursday, the DCI detectives took Ms Wairimu to Milimani High Court over the murder.
“On Friday, at about 2pm, my team had an important meeting in Kiambu regarding this case. One of the lawyers, George Ouma, decided to call those caretakers to get update of anything that was happening. The caretaker only said two words ‘wako hapa’ (they are here) before the phone was taken away from him. We realised something was wrong and abandoned the meeting we were heading to and drove straight to Kitisuru,” the lawyer narrated.
According to Mr Murgor, at the home, they found the scene of crime officers clearing debris at the site where the body was eventually found.
The defence also took issue with DCI head Mr George Kinoti whom they accuse of announcing that Tob Cohen’ s body had been found before it had even been retrieved from the septic tank. Mr Murgor said police should have waited “for the body to be identified”.
