Residents of Kiambu have poured praise on the police officers for unravelling the mystery shrouding the disappearance of Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen who went missing two months ago.
The sleuths received accolades from members of the public interviewed after the officers finally recovered the body of the slain tycoon at his palatial home at Kitisuri in a brutal killing that placed his estranged wife Sarah Wairimu at the Centre of the investigations.
Johnson Mwangi an electronic shop owner along Kiambu’s Biashara Street told KNA that it had almost become a norm that the force was inept and was largely vilified for failing to logically conclude their probes but the Cohen case was likely to change the negative perception.
“We can now see them closing in on the culprits who tortured and murdered the tycoon before dumping the body at a location no one could suspect” he said.
The recovery of the body is an indication that police officers were not sleeping on their job and that anyone who attempted to murder another person in cold blood would face the full force of the law. “What the police have done in this particular case is commendable and Kenyans are alive to the fact that the long arm of the law will always catch up with evil doers who think they can rid the crime scenes of traces of suspicion.”
Monica Mwangi another resident who sells clothes along the same road said Police should be lauded for excellent job they had done to unravel the mystery surrounding the murder of the tycoon.
The same efforts should be exerted with the full force when anyone died mysteriously so that society can prosper with sober people who have humanity.
Ms Mwangi reckoned that police with the support of Wananchi could do wonders to protect lives and property if the Government paid them good salaries and remunerated them well depending on their strengths and experience. “But when the government pays these officers peanuts, that is when it gives them an open cheque to extort money from innocent members of the society who end up not seeing any good in the security personnel” she said.
She noted that in as much as the wife of the tycoon was under trial, it was a relief to his family that his remains had been recovered and that they would now bury him and move on with their lives without bothering anymore. “It is very disturbing that a human being can be reported to have travelled out of the country, only for him to be found dead and in the most dehumanizing condition of a septic tank” she said.
Tycoon Tob Cohen was reported missing on July 19th when his wife insisted that he had possibly travelled out of the country for treatment. The body was however pulled out of a septic tank in his compound following intensive investigations from the workers at his Kitisuru home in Nairobi County.
The residents made these remarks amid speculations that a second suspect would be arraigned at the Kiambu law courts last Friday when members of the fourth estate pitched camp at the courts. Scores of Dutch Nationals believed to be Cohen’s friends and relatives also spent the better part of the day discussing in low tones as others took videos and photographs in different locations of the judicial institution possibly awaiting for the arraignment of the suspect which was not to be.
Cohen’s wife Sarah Wairimu had been presented before Kiambu chief magistrate Ms Patriciah Gichohi on August 29 under a miscellaneous application through which officers of the DCI applied to be granted 14 days within which they said would enable them complete their investigations. She had been arrested on August 28 and was arraigned in compliance to the constitution that prohibits police to continue to keep any suspect in custody without charging them for 24 hours.
In her ruling, the magistrate allowed police to detain her for 12 days at Muthaiga police station which her defence lawyer Phillip Murgor said he would appeal against the decision and the case ended up at the Milimani law courts as the duty Judge at the Kiambu High court Lady Justice Christine Meoli is on recess and scheduled to resume tomorrow.
The High court has since allowed the prosecution to process the wife’s mental capability to stand trial for the murder of her husband before she can take plea.
As police continued their investigations into catching up with her accomplices, her defence counsel held a press conference in Nairobi yesterday protesting that her client was being tried in the media as he was not invited during the recovery of the body from the septic tank.
By Lydia Shiloya
