Tob Cohen: Slain tycoon's family pays tribute in cryptic newspaper notice reviving mystery of his death
The late Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen. His widow is fighting his family over authority to administer his estate.
Relatives of Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen reignited memories of the man’s mysterious death in Nairobi five years ago by running an unconventional newspaper notice.
Rather than have a photo of Mr Cohen and text relating to his death anniversary, the notice in the Saturday Nation’s transition pages featured four words in block letters arranged diagonally: “We will never forget.”
Tob Cohen's unorthodox "in loving memory" newspaper tribute by his family caught the attention of many.
The unorthodox “in loving memory” notice caught the eye of many and was doing the rounds on social media platforms.
His date of death was indicated as July 20, 2019—the day he went missing.
Searches for him kept hitting dead ends until September of that year when his body was found in an underground water tank inside his compound in Nairobi’s Kitisuru area.
It had been wrapped in a black polythene bag, with a rope around his neck and his hands tied in the front.
That implies that the date when his ex-wife, Sarah Wairimu, told police that he had travelled to Thailand is the same date recognised as his date of death.
He died at 69, having been born on November 12, 1949. Mr Cohen, a golf-loving tycoon, had married Sarah (who was once his secretary) after his wife died.
However, his marriage with Ms Wairimu hit the rocks, and as a court case about their divorce progressed, he lived in fear for his life.
Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen and his wife Sarah Wairimu Kamotho in an undated photo.
He had informed his only sister, Gabriele Van Straten, about his fears.
Gabriele was one of the names in yesterday’s “in loving memory” notice.
Police told Sunday Nation in 2019 that every day, without fail, Mr Cohen would call Gabriele twice to just say he was alive.
When he did not call on July 20, she panicked and reported the matter to the Dutch police, saying her brother could be in danger.
However, by the time she was reporting that her brother was in danger, Ms Wairimu had a day earlier sent a letter to the Dutch embassy in Nairobi seeking “help,” saying that Tob has “depression and a mental condition he won’t address for personal reasons”.
There were complex accounts about the happenings around the disappearance, but detectives were confident they had cracked the code after the body was found.
A month after the remains were discovered, Ms Wairimu was charged with Cohen’s death.
Sarah Wairimu Cohen during an interview at her Njigari home in Nyeri county on June 17, 2021.
She was charged, along with businessman Peter Karanja. That would change in December 2022, when the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew charges against the two accused persons.
Justice Daniel Ogembo—who, incidentally, was found dead in his Siaya house on Wednesday—overruled the family’s objections to the withdrawing of the charges.
“The objections raised do not have merit and are dismissed. I allow the nolle prosequi. The accused persons are accordingly discharged,” said the judge.
With the withdrawal of the charges, a judicial inquest was set to be filed at the chief magistrate’s court to establish the cause and circumstances leading to the tycoon’s death.
