Tob Cohen removed Sarah Wairimu from final will, lawyer tells court

A city lawyer who prepared Tob Cohen’s final will on Monday revealed how the slain Dutch businessman removed his wife, Sarah Wairimu, and her daughter as beneficiaries, replacing them with his relatives months before his death.

Senior advocate Geoffrey Chege Kirundi, a former chairman of the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) Holdings Board, told the Kibera High Court that Cohen, who had been his client since 2000, executed his last will on April 30, 2019, leaving 50 per cent of his estate to his sister, while his niece and nephew were each allocated 25 per cent.

The revelation emerged during the testimony of Kirundi, who told Justice Diana Kavedza that he had prepared three wills for Cohen, with the first bequeathing his property to Wairimu and her daughter before he subsequently changed the beneficiaries.

According to the lawyer, in the first will, Cohen had provided for his wife and her daughter. He later amended it to remove the daughter and leave Wairimu as the sole beneficiary.

However, in the final will, he removed his wife altogether and replaced her with his sister, niece and nephew.

“He asked me to remove the wife, Sarah Wairimu, from the will,” Kirundi told the court, explaining how Cohen gave fresh instructions on the beneficiaries of his estate.

The lawyer said the final document was prepared by his firm after Cohen gave instructions, with associate advocate Joseph Irungu tasked with drafting it.

The will, dated April 30, 2019, allocated 50 per cent to Cohen’s sister Gabrielle Hannah van Straten, with the remaining half shared equally between his niece Sharon van Tienhoven and nephew Seth Straten.

Kirundi produced the original will in court, explaining that it had remained in the custody of his law firm since it was executed, apart from the period it was handed to investigators in his office and copies were made for them.

He said the investigating officer had visited his office and requested documents relating to Cohen, prompting him to surrender several records, including the will.

The lawyer further told the court that the will was eventually opened in the presence of Cohen’s sister Gabrielle, her husband Roy van Straten, his brother Bernard Cohen and members of the press after the family learnt that his body had been discovered in his Nairobi villa at Kitisuru.

He said the decision to make the contents public was informed by the intense media attention surrounding Cohen’s disappearance.

“At that time, the matter was hitting headlines in the newspapers. And therefore, we thought the best thing is to make it as open as possible,” he testified.

Kirundi also produced several documents from his dealings with Cohen, including correspondence, property transaction records, a marriage certificate and receipts relating to legal fees.

Among the documents was a sale agreement for land in Lower Kabete, which Cohen purchased in March 2000 for Sh1.5 million, before developing a house where he later lived with Wairimu.

He told the court that in 2009, Cohen instructed him to transfer the property into joint ownership with his wife.

However, the businessman later changed his mind and instructed him to halt the registration process, despite the transfer documents having been prepared and stamp duty exemption obtained.

Kirundi said the documents remained unregistered to date.

The lawyer also recounted an incident in February 2019 when Cohen invited him for lunch at Muthaiga Country Club and showed him photographs and videos in a laptop of injuries he allegedly sustained during an assault at his home.

According to Kirundi, Cohen told him that Wairimu had pushed him down a flight of stairs while he was smoking outside the house.

“He showed me the evidence of videos and photos that he'd been attacked,” the lawyer testified, adding that the photographs and videos showed blood on Cohen’s face.

He said Cohen had already reported the alleged assault to Parklands Police Station before informing him about the incident.

The advocate further disclosed that Cohen had approached him seeking representation in divorce proceedings against Wairimu, but he declined because he knew her personally.

Instead, he recommended the late lawyer Judy Thongori to handle the divorce proceedings, while advocate Danstan Omari was recommended to take up the criminal aspect of the dispute on the alleged assaults he had encountered from his wife Wairimu.

He also confirmed that indeed Thongori took up Cohen's instructions and filed a divorce case in the family court.

Kirundi said he remained in contact with Cohen and met him for lunch at Yaya Centre on July 18, 2019, a day before the businessman was last seen alive.

He told the court that Cohen was excited because police were expected to arrest Wairimu the following day over the alleged assault.

The two also discussed a planned trip to Aberdare Mountains, where Cohen had been engaged as a marketing consultant for Kirundi’s proposed hospitality project.

The lawyer said he later received calls and emails from Cohen’s sister, Gabrielle, who was worried after failing to reach her brother.

He said he contacted friends and lawyers to help trace Cohen, eventually involving advocate Omari, who went to the businessman’s Lower Kabete residence.

Kirundi said Omari reported that the house appeared deserted and that a dog in the compound looked as though it had not been fed for some time.

The lawyer further told the court that as they were seeking the whereabouts of Cohen, his office received a letter seeking withdrawal of the divorce proceedings, which he immediately suspected was not genuine.

“I told her to take that letter and seal it. It is a matter of criminal investigation,” he testified.

He said he found it suspicious that Cohen would withdraw the divorce proceedings without consulting him, considering their previous discussions.

The lawyer said that days Cohen's sister and brother arrived in the country and Cohen’s body was discovered in a septic tank at his Lower Kabete residence on September 13, 2019, weeks after he was reported missing.

Wairimu is charged with his murder and has denied the allegations.

Earlier, former Gatundu North MP Patrick Kariuki Muiruri faced an extensive cross-examination by Wairimu’s lawyer, Pravin Bowry, who questioned his relationship with Cohen and the circumstances surrounding his decision to report the businessman’s disappearance as murder.

Muiruri, who described Cohen as a close friend of about 30 years, maintained that the businessman had confided in him about his troubled marriage and fears for his safety.

However, Bowry questioned why the former MP had little interaction with Cohen’s family despite claiming to have been close friends for three decades.

Muiruri admitted that the two did not socialise with each other’s families and that Cohen did not know his children.

The defence also questioned the extent of their friendship, with Muiruri telling the court that they had travelled together only once, to Bangkok, in September 2013, for a golf trip involving about 20 people.

Bowry further challenged Muiruri over his decision to report Cohen’s murder to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations before the businessman’s body had been found.

The former MP maintained that he knew Cohen had been murdered after receiving information including media reports on August 5, 2019, that he was missing.

“I knew he was not missing. He was murdered,” Muiruri told the court.

Pressed on whether he had evidence or merely suspicions, Muiruri said Cohen had previously warned him that Wairimu should be held responsible if anything happened to him.

The defence also questioned Muiruri about claims that Cohen was a heavy drinker, had a difficult temperament and had fallen out with several people.

Muiruri rejected the suggestions, describing Cohen as a good man and disputing allegations that he was a troublemaker.

He also denied claims that he borrowed Sh2.1 million and doing any business with him and had been involved in a Sh2.1 million fake currency syndicate, describing the allegations put to him by the defence as false.

Muiruri also found himself on the defensive after Bowry accused him of having made advances towards Wairimu and harbouring resentment after she allegedly rejected him.

The former MP vehemently denied the allegations, insisting he had no romantic interest in the accused Wairimu and had never attempted to court her.

“No, my honour, how do I handle that now? The lawyer is making me angry now. Why would I want that woman? No, I have never,” Muiruri responded when asked whether he had made passes at Wairimu.

When Bowry pressed him on whether he wanted Wairimu to be his girlfriend, Muiruri answered: “No.”

He added: “I did not want a woman of her character.”

The exchange prompted Justice Diana Kavedza to intervene and ask the former MP to calm down and take some water after he appeared angered by the questions.

Bowry further suggested that Muiruri had fabricated evidence against Wairimu because she had rejected his advances, an allegation he dismissed.

The lawyer also questioned Muiruri about the events surrounding the December 18, 2018 traditional wedding ceremony of Wairimu's daughter, where both Cohen and the former MP were guests.

Muiruri said he attended the ceremony after being invited and arrived at about 1pm before leaving at 5 pm.

He maintained that Cohen had been sidelined during the celebrations including being on the high table at the event.

In his testimony, Muiruri recalled an incident in which Cohen allegedly took a microphone to welcome guests to his home, only for Wairimu to interrupt him.

According to Muiruri, Wairimu grabbed the microphone and told Cohen: “This is not your home, you are talking nonsense,” before handing it to the master of ceremonies.

Asked whether the incident had turned the celebration into an unpleasant affair, Muiruri described it as “a nasty thing” and added that “it was a bad show.”

He also denied seeing the couple smiling or appearing happy together during the ceremony.

However, when Bowry presented photographs purportedly showing Cohen and Wairimu in a jovial mood at the wedding, Muiruri challenged their authenticity, saying they were undated and appeared to have been taken on different occasions.

“I have seen the photos, they are not dated, they are showing different occasions,” he told the court, adding that one photograph could have been taken during an earlier golf tournament presentation.

After the cross-examination, Kirundi took the witness stand to give evidence about his professional dealings with Cohen, the preparation of the wills and the events surrounding the businessman’s disappearance.

Kirundi was stood down after his evidence-in-chief to today with the defence expected to cross-examine him when the hearing resumes.