The court has barred the Directorate of Criminal Investigations from and victim’s defense from addressing the media regarding the murder of Dutch tycoon Tob Cohen.
Milimani Court’s Justice Jessie Lessit ruled that the media should only report what transpires in court.
Sarah Wairimu on Monday appeared before Milimani law courts with her lawyer Phillip Murgor seeking a bail application arguing that his client has been in custody for close to 20 days.
Lessit also gave two weeks for Wairimu to undergo a mental assessment before she comes back to court to take plea.
The court had on Thursday last week ordered that a mental assessment be done on Wairimu but it did not take place.
Murgor had earlier argued that his client was being prosecuted in the media by the DCI.
He said police told him they want to establish the cause of death and wanted the postmortem postponed to Tuesday at 9 am.
The police had scheduled the same for today afternoon at 2.30pm.
The accused, Wairimu, has been held in custody from August 28.
“There is no further reason to hold her,” Murgor said.
The lawyer showed the court a copy of Monday’s the Star newspaper, saying it was not true that the late Cohen’s home was willed to his sister.
“Wairimu needs to be out fighting for her rights as she has a 50 per cent stake to all the property,” Murgor said.
“The caretakers at her house have run away after being scared off by Cohen’s neighbour Patrick Muiruri.”
Prosecutor Nicholas Mutuku said they will give the defense all the evidence so that they can prepare for the trial saying they are holding nothing back.
“It’s true the matter has taken long but some of these delays can be attributed to the defense,” he said.
“They kept taking the police in circles on the whereabouts of Cohen. The plea cannot be taken without a mental assessment of the accused, the defense can also be present.”
He said there has to be booking with the doctor for the mental exam.
On the postmortem, Mutuku said it was supposed to be today but they have no objection to accommodating Wairimu’s pathologist who will represent her.
He said they will oppose the release of Wairimu on bail.
Lawyer Cliff Ombeta representing the Cohen family said they will indulge the defense and that they are also opposing bail.
Murgor, however, said Ombeta cannot speak on bail as a lawyer watching brief.
The case will be mentioned on September 26.