Campbell Scott murder: How a gang has been using dating apps to rob and kill wealthy men

The man wanted by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) as the main suspect in connection with the murder of Briton Campbell Scott has been using online dating robbery apps to lure victims and rob them for years.

Bernard Mbunga Mbusu from Machakos County has been leading a gang using "honey traps" to lure wealthy but love-starved men into secluded places before the victims are extensively tortured and robbed by the purported lovers. The suspect operates a gang comprising mainly of relatives.

Scott had arrived in Nairobi to attend a conference and was booked at the JW Marriott Hotel in Westlands. He was later captured on CCTV footage leaving a different hotel with an unidentified man.

He would later proceed to a house in Pipeline Estate in an online cab, where he is suspected to have been fatally injured in a robbery in which the DCI says Mbunga and his accomplices were involved.

The DCI has appealed to the public for help in tracing Mbunga alongside his accomplices Samuel Musembi Kamitu and Alphonse Munyao Kilewa.

They are suspected to be involved in the murder of Scott, 58, who is believed to have been killed in Pipeline Estate in Embakasi, Nairobi, and his body dumped in Makongo Forest in Makueni County last month.

"Following the heinous crime and subsequent dumping of his body, the trio (Mbunga, Kamitu and Kilewa) fled and have since gone into hiding," the DCI said in its public appeal on its X account.

The DCI is urging the public to volunteer any information that may lead to the arrest of Mbunga, Kamitu and Kilewa, alias Edu, who have gone into hiding following the discovery of Scott's body.

String of robberies 

Coincidentally, the DCI had arrested Mbunga in October 2020 after he was linked to two men – his cousins – who were allegedly found robbing an Israeli national in Kasarani Sub-County, Nairobi.

Fredrick Mutiso and Kelvin Nzioki, who were later charged alongside Mbunga, were allegedly caught red-handed by DCI officers in the act of robbery.

At the time of the arrest, the two were being pursued by detectives from Lang’ata Sub-County for different robberies they had allegedly committed in Nairobi West and Imara Daima in Embakasi.

Mbunga was charged at the Kibera Law Courts with multiple robbery with violence cases alongside Mutiso, Nzioki, and actress Catherine Mumbi Kivuva. He is now a wanted man.

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They had allegedly been involved in a series of robberies in Nairobi, where Kivuva would establish sex dens, lure men into them, only for the victims to be attacked and robbed by men claiming to be her husband.

Most of the victims, both local and foreign, who have fallen prey to Mbunga and his gang are gay men, usually trapped by men pretending to be gay while on a robbery mission. Many met the suspects on the dating site Tinder, while others connected via Facebook.

Sources within the DCI told this writer that most of the cases in court collapsed because the victims declined to testify, fearing the embarrassment of revealing the circumstances under which they were robbed.

"The foreigner who was the complainant in the case I was investigating went back to his country, and the case (of robbery with violence) was dropped by the court," a DCI officer told this writer.

Among the past victims is American Philippe Chiliade, who left his husband in South Africa and flew into Nairobi in November 2019 to meet two men who had promised to be his ‘wives’ after a brief encounter on Facebook.

He was picked up at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and chauffeured to Pipeline Estate in Embakasi, where he was taken to a house and subjected to a horrific ordeal at the hands of the men who had promised him romance.

Chiliade was fortunate to escape alive, although he was robbed of everything, including his travel documents and more than Sh5 million.

The man arrested while driving Chiliade back to JKIA was Mutiso, Mbunga’s accomplice in crime.

Investigations later established that Chiliade had been forced to contact his husband to send a ransom to secure his release from the den where he had sought to fulfil his desires. His embassy later facilitated his return to South Africa.

Other victims include a businessman who was lured into a house in Imara Daima by Ms Kivuva before being cornered by men who accused him of fornication.

The victim was instructed to meet Ms Kivuva at the City Cabanas PSV matatu stage on Mombasa Road in Nairobi, after which she led him to "her house" where he was stripped naked, tortured, filmed while naked, and forced to pay money or risk having his nude images leaked on social media.

He lodged a complaint with DCI Lang’ata but later declined to testify when the suspects were charged.

The then Lang’ata Police Commander, Gregory Mutiso, stated at the time that many wealthy men were falling victim to such online love fraudsters before being robbed, but most preferred not to seek justice upon learning that they would have to record statements with the police and testify in court for the suspects to be convicted and jailed.