This archive report was first published on 16 September 2019.
Published on September 16, 2019, a report by the Sunday Nation revealed that Sarah Wairimu, the estranged wife of slain Dutch businessman Tob Cohen, has been building a hotel near her rural home in Njigari village, Othaya, Nyeri County.
The one-acre land, which borders the Aberdares forest, was purchased over five years ago, and construction began, but it appears to have stalled.
Locals in the area recalled that Cohen and Wairimu would frequently visit the project together, spending nights in a prefabricated house on the compound.
However, the couple gradually stopped visiting the project together, with Cohen visiting alone while Wairimu was accompanied by strangers.
Wairimu was last seen in March and June, while Cohen visited around April, taking photos of the stalled building and cautioning the neighbors against talking about his visit to strangers.
‘The Mzungu (Cohen) used to be friendly and outgoing. He would engage in general talk with us. But in his April tour, he appeared cautious and did not speak much,’ said Solomon Muchiri, a neighbor.
During her visit in March, Wairimu was in the company of people in ‘posh cars’. The residents also noted that the contractor and the workers left the site the same month.
‘Ms Wairimu was last here around end of June, and she was in company of another woman. They spent some time and left,’ said David Muriithi, another neighbor.
The local dailies reported that during some of the visits, neighbors said Wairimu would be in the company of armed police officers from Munyange Police Station.
Neighbours described Wairimu, the key suspect in her husband’s gruesome murder, as a person of few words who rarely interacted with her neighbors.
