Wairimu laid bare her love life on social media after husband’s disappearance

Tob Cohen with wife Sarah Wairimu Kamotho. [Image: Courtesy]

Before Toby Cohen’s disappearance, Sarah Wairimu Kamotho’s footprints on social media were barely there. Save for a few mentions from friends, Wairimu’s name was always shadowed by her husband’s prominence. Then everything changed.

She is now one of the trending personalities online and off the net. Partly because is at the centre of a murder investigation and due to the many posts, updates and social media presence she commanded in the last few weeks.

Wairimu debuted on YouTube to tell the world who she is on August 9. The video starts with a blank screen. Pitch darkness for a few seconds, followed by a male voice introducing her. Then she shows her face.

“My name is Sarah Cohen. I am 51-years-old. I am a wife, mother, business person and a friend to many…,” she says.

Her other presence that was interrupted by her arrest is on her website, one that was set up after her husband’s disappearance. In it, she puts fragments of her life and attempts to tell their story. Of how love rises and falls. She paints a picture of helpless women who fell in love with an erratic man. 

“Tob was an acquired taste. You had to be patient to love him,” she says. 

She writes that she knew Cohen when she was 23-years-old. They eventually moved in together in 1998, before formalising their marriage according to Kikuyu customary law in 2007. 

Wairimu dismisses claims that their love was bound by her love for money, and the stereotypical young black woman clinging to an old “mzungu” for wealth. She says they worked hard and together set up a tours and travel company.

“Tob was not a wealthy man when we met, and is not one of Kenya’s richest men as is being reported,” reads part of her statement on her website. 

Not much is known about how the couple met, but close friends say their love was like a pendulum. It swung both ways. When they were in love, they were not afraid to show it. They would hold hands, fondle, whisper into each other’s ears in public display of affection.

When they fought, it was hard. They yelled in public, shouted and threw insults. During an event in December, he yelled in public that he was going to divorce her.

Close sources say their relationship started with a high power distance. Cohen was looking for a personal assistant and Wairimu was a young girl looking for employment.

He often told his friends that he liked her zeal. A few years later, they started dating and later married. Her friends trace her roots to Othaya where it is claimed she was making some investments. 

Former MP Patrick Muiriri says Cohen had on several occasions hinted that Wairimu was abusive. “He was very concerned about his life…” Muiruri said after Cohen’s body was discovered in an underground water tank.

Wairimu on her social media painted Cohen as an abuser of women and drugs. She said he smoked like a chimney, and puffed weed, making him hard to be around. 

From her posts, she lacked the flamboyance of a woman of means. Her natural hair was always sleeked back and her face with no makeup. It’s said she had a daughter from a previous relationship, but not much is known about her.

On her court appearance and the few times she appeared on social media videos, she was soft-spoken and careful with her words.