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Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen and his wife Sarah Kamotho. Mr Cohen has been missing since July. PHOTO | COURTESY
Wife of missing Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen detained
Ms Sarah Wairimu Kamotho, the wife of 71-year old Dutch millionaire Tob Cohen, has been taken in for questioning by the detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
Police sources say that Ms Kamotho was picked up at her Kitisuru home Wednesday evening and detained at Muthaiga Police Station and she is likely to face charges related to the disappearance of her millionaire husband who has not been seen since July.
MESSY DIVORCE
Details of why she was picked up are scanty but the Nation has established that she was picked from her home early Wednesday evening and driven to DCI headquarters along Kiambu Road.
Mr Cohen, a former chief executive of Dutch conglomerate Phillips East Africa, vanished from his home between July 19 and 20 this year and has never been seen again.
Before he disappeared, the couple were involved in a messy divorce case and a fight over a multi-million-shilling property, and an assault case he had filed against his wife.
Ms Wairimu had told Mr Cohen’s friends that her husband, a celebrated golf tournaments organiser, had left for Thailand to seek treatment, but detectives have established there is no evidence from the immigration department that the missing tycoon left the country.
Early this month, Mrs Cohen told the Nation that her husband had taken a break and flew out to Thailand for a rest. “Lawyers were pushing him for money and he wanted to seek medical treatment,” she said
The workers at his home have told the police that Mr Cohen left his high-security compound, where CCTV cameras point to the driveway, on the afternoon of July 20 at around 2pm. They claim he only carried a briefcase and was driven off in a white car. By whom? They don’t know.
ABUSIVE AND VINDICTIVE
Detectives are also scrutinising a letter written to the Dutch Embassy in Nairobi and dated Thursday, July 18 – a day before he disappeared – and signed by Ms Sarah Kamotho alleging that “Tob has depression and mental condition he won’t address for personal reasons and this has (been) and is causing a lot of problems”.
In the letter, shown to the Nation by Dutch sources, and which we learnt was handed to Kenyan detectives, the author claims that Mr Cohen was suffering from “paranoia … hence the frequent fights with everyone”.
“He has become impossible to live with, even though we try. The family has stepped aside due to the abusive and vindictive nature of his condition,” the letter continues.
Ms Wairimu said she wrote that letter. “I was seeking help from them but they never replied to my letter. I wrote it since Tob does not listen to anybody.”
Detectives have now summoned her to get her side of the story. “This letter and the two letters sent to Mr Cohen’s lawyers are important leads,” a detective handling the case told the Nation.
While police say there is no evidence to suggest that someone killed the well-known golfer, they also say there is no evidence to suggest someone did not.
