The late city businessman Tob Cohen left all his wealth, both assets and cash, to his sister and her two children.
Gabrielle Van Straten got the majority share of the wealth, including money in his offshore account in Amsterdam and two accounts in Kenya along with 50 per cent share of his Sh450 million palatial matrimonial home in Kitusuru.
He left his nephew Seth Straten and niece Sharon Van Tienhoven a 25 per cent share each of the house, which is currently being sought by widow Sarah Wairimu.
His only brother Bernard Cohen did not get anything in the will but was given the mandate to be the executor and the trustee of the will alongside their sister Gabriele.
“Upon trust, I hereby give and bequeath my sister all my shares in Tobs Ltd and all the bank balances Rabo Bank in Amsterdam,” the will reads.
Gabrielle was also given all the money held at NIC Bank (now part of NCBA) in the names of Tobs Limited and Tob Cohen.
"I give her all the movable assets, including motor vehicle registration No KAD,” the will says.
Cohen also writes in the will that should Gabriele pass on, then all his property should be shared equally between her two children. The businessman wrote the will on April 30, 2019, barely a week after he reported to the Inspector General of Police on April 22 that his wife was working with some police officers to harass him over his home.
At the time, Cohen said he was astonished at the discriminatory manner in which the law was being applied to his disadvantage as no step had been taken by police officers at Parklands police station to prosecute Wairimu, despite a preponderance of evidence demonstrating her guilt, yet the same law enforcers were keen to prosecute him.
He pleaded with the DPP and IG to act speedily, saying failure to do so would make him continue to suffer humiliation, discrimination and persecution. Cohen went missing three months after he wrote his will and his mutilated body was later found on September 13 inside a septic tank in the home he shared with his wife Wairimu.
Wairimu was charged with his murder and is currently waiting for the trial. While she is out of bail, she has filed a succession case seeking to be given back her matrimonial home. The will was attached to an application filed by Cohen’s family, which is seeking to be included in the case filed by Wairimu over Cohen’s estate.
They argue that before he died, he had executed a will through which he expressed his desire to have his estate shared among the three of them. Through lawyer Danstan Omari, the family has asked the court to include them in the case because they have a stake in the estate, hence deserve to access to justice to justice to all persons. The case will be coming up on February 10.