Two people have been arrested in Kenya who are suspected of murdering a 55-year-old Dutchman in the city of Mombasa. It concerns a 22-year-old man and a woman whose age is unknown.
According to local media, one of the two has now made a confession, in which the Dutchman’s Kenyan wife is identified as the mastermind behind the murder plot.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it is aware of the case, but cannot say anything further because it is an investigation by the Kenyan police.
Tied up and mouth gagged
Herman Rouwenhorst was found dead in bed at the beginning of last month in his apartment in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. His mouth was gagged and his hands and feet were tied, Kenyan media reported. The apartment complex guard was found seriously injured. He later died in hospital.
Rouwenhorst ran a timber business with his brother in Apeldoorn for decades. The Stentor spoke to that brother shortly after the murder of Rouwenhorst. “You just don’t believe this,” he said. “He had a good life in Kenya and didn’t work there. Herman was winding down. A normal man who loved a beer. Fishing was his great hobby.”
The Dutchman had emigrated to Kenya six years ago. There he owned, among other things, hotels in and near Mombasa. The two suspected of the murder of Rouwenhorst would have previously worked as managers in his hotels.
Statement of children
The police found Rouwenhorst after a tip from his wife, who was found tied to the wheel in a car. She said she was kidnapped by the men who attacked her husband.
The police immediately had doubts about that statement and questioned her for hours on the weekend after the murder. She was arrested a month ago on the basis of the statement of the couple’s two children.
They said that their mother opened the door for unknown men, who went straight to their father’s room. The children’s bedroom doors were locked.
‘Rouwenhorst wanted divorce’
The Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation writes on the basis of the police investigation that she would have taken action after Rouwenhorst had informed her that he wanted to divorce her. A month before the murder, the woman is said to have already shown one of the perpetrators around the apartment in preparation.
The 22-year-old suspect most likely had a house built with the money from the reward two weeks after the murder, the newspaper writes. Bloody shoes and other items that linked him to the murder were found in that house.
Tob Cohen
The murder of Rouwenhorst follows two years after the murder of another Dutch businessman in Kenya: former Philips CEO Tob Cohen. His body was found in an underground tank near his home in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, after being missing for nearly two months. Cohen’s ex-wife is one of the suspects in the murder case, which is still pending.
Last year, a high judge was arrested in the case on suspicion of conflict of interest.
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