Why Sarah Wairimu could be locked out of Cohen’s burial

Sarah Wairimu Kamotho could miss her husband Tob Cohen’s interment slated for Monday, September 23, after High Court judge Ngenye Macharia declined to issue orders via phone instructing police to allow the suspect attend the event.

Wairimu’s legal team, led by Philip Murgor, on Friday asked the deputy Registrar of the High Court, Jane Kamau, to issue them with orders directing lead officer at Lang’ata Prison to release Sarah from custody on Monday so that she can attend Cohen’s burial at the Jewish Cemetery on Wangari Mathai Road in Nairobi.

Jane Kamau told Wairimu’s legal reps that she lacked the powers to grant the suspect temporary release from custody.

Jane Kamau, thereafter, said she needed to consult the High Court’s criminal division judge on duty, Ngenye Macharia, who -- when reached on phone -- said she had already left the court premises, and can only listen to Wairimu’s legal reps’ application on Monday 8am.

The judge further declined to give verbal instructions to authorities holding Wairimu to allow her attend the burial on Monday.

Wairimu’s lawyer, Murgor, had filed an application seeking orders directing the officer in command at Lang’ata Women’s remand prison to escort Wairimu to the Jewish Cemetery on Monday at 1:30pm ahead of the 2pm burial.

In the application, filed under the certificate of urgency, Wairimu says a dispute arose between her and her sister-in-law, Gabriel Van Straten, shortly before Cohen’s postmortem was conducted at Chiromo Mortuary on Wednesday. Wairimu says she differed with Gabrielle on the exact time, and way in which Cohen would be interred.

In her Friday application, Wairimu listed the DCI boss Kinoti, the DPP chief Haji, and Cohen’s sister, Gabrielle, as interested parties.

In her application, Wairimu says she is seeking the court’s orders to facilitate her presence at her husband’s burial.

The applicant says her legal team and that of Gabrielle, led by Cliff Ombeta, agreed on Wednesday evening that she will be allowed to attend the burial.

“If she is not allowed to pay her last respect to her husband, that will be an infringement on her Constitutional rights under Article 50 (2) section (a), which stipulates that that a suspect is considered innocent until proven guilty by a competent court of law,” said Murgor, who maintains his client did not plan or take part in Cohen’s murder.

Legal reps from the DPP’s office, the assistant DPP, Alexander Muteti, Nicholas Mutuku and Catherine Mwaniki were present in court Friday.

Muteti, Mutuku and Mwaniki are opposed to Wairimu being allowed to attend Cohen’s interment.