Bernard Mbunga Mbusu is the man spotted with Campbell Scott (inset) on February 16, 2025.
A man captured on CCTV camera leaving an entertainment spot in Westlands, Nairobi, with a Briton on the day the foreigner disappeared, only to be found dead a week later, has pending criminal cases involving two foreigners.
Investigations show Bernard Mbunga Mbusu is the man spotted with Campbell Scott on Sunday, February 16, as the two walked out of the night club, only for the Briton’s decomposing body to be discovered on February 22 in Makongo Forest in Makueni.
Police reports indicate Mbunga has been out on bail facing two cases of robbery with violence in which Turkish and Indian nationals are named as victims.
And Mbunga, Samuel Musembi Kamitu and Alphonse Munyao Kilewa, who are wanted by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) following Scott’s murder, were together accused of the abduction and robbing of a city pastor at a restaurant near Nyayo National Stadium.
These developments have focused the investigation into Scott’s murder on the possible involvement of a criminal syndicate that has been luring victims through online dating sites only to kidnap and steal from them.
In the 2022 pastor’s case, police were led to the three suspects, now wanted for Scott’s murder, after analysis of cash transfers.
According to a DCI report, the pastor was walking to a restaurant at Nyayo stadium for dinner when he was accosted by a gang that forced him into a car and stripped him naked. The attackers filmed the nude pastor for blackmail.
They forced him to reveal his PIN number, after which Sh55,000 was transferred from his account. The case was reported at Lang’ata Police Station.
DCI investigators, after analysing the cash transfers, traced the suspects to their houses in Syokimau, Kitengela and Katani.
A screengrab of footage from a security camera in Westlands on February 17, 2025, shows Scott in the company of an unidentified man.
But the suspects were not prosecuted because the pastor was not keen on the trial, apparently for fear of the circulation of his nude photographs.
Mbunga, however, is on trial at a court in Kibera on two cases of robbery with violence.
The first involves an attack on a Turkish national.
According to a DCI report on October 11, 2020, a police raid at a house in Ruaka found “a Turkish national being subjected to torture by two men.” Mbunga was among the perpetrators, according to the police report.
The raid had been prompted by an investigation into a “notorious syndicate that has been luring unsuspecting victims through online dating sites and extorting money from them.”
Mbunga was among four suspects arrested in the raid. The others were Mbunga’s accomplice, a woman who police claimed had lured the victim to the house and another man arrested at an ATM lobby of a bank in Ruaka with the victim’s ATM cards and pin number.
Mbunga had also been implicated in an earlier incident where an Indian national was robbed in a similar manner at Imara Daima, Nairobi.
Mbunga was also arrested over another case five years ago accused of threatening to kill a senior staff of Parliament.
According to the DCI, on May 22, 2020, the deputy director in charge of finance at Parliament reported to the police that he had received death threats.
After investigations, the police arrested two suspects at the Kenyatta National Hospital. Among those arrested were Mbunga.
Now, the DCI has urged for public help to arrest Mbunga, Musembi and Munyao following the killing of Scott, 58, who detectives believe is the latest victim of the gang.
A photo taken on February 24, 2025, showing a Makongo Forest signpost near the location where the body of Briton Campbell Scott was found.
The man’s death remains a mystery after a postmortem examination revealed that the injuries on his body were too minor to have caused his death.
Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Odour said doctors were now waiting for toxicological results to ascertain what killed Scott.
“The injuries on his body were too minor to have caused his death. We have recommended further toxicological examinations,” Dr Odour told the Nation last week.
Detectives from the Nairobi Area Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau have since arrested a taxi driver and a nightclub waiter to assist with the investigation.
A group of herders found Scott’s body in a thicket in the outskirts of Wote town, over 140 kilometres from the JW Marriott hotel in Nairobi, where the British national was to stay for at least five nights.
Scott, a senior director of a UK-based firm –Fico- had arrived in Nairobi with a colleague on February 15 to attend a three-day conference organized by TransUnion Africa.
CCTV footage shows Scott, dressed in a short cargo pant and a blue shirt, walking out of the JW Marriott towards Westland’s at 11.50am on February 16.
Police investigations have since revealed that Scott had drinks with a friend at the bar in the Westlands area.
Scott had met the same friend at the same bar the day before he disappeared. Police have further established that after meeting with this male friend, the two left the club shortly after 7pm and boarded a taxi to Pipeline estate, Embakasi.
The taxi driver led police to a house in Pipeline estate where he dropped Scott and his friend.
A team of forensic experts from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and government pathologists at Makueni County Referral Hospital mortuary on February 27, 2025 for the postmortem of slain Briton Campbell Scott.
A colleague with whom Scott was to attend the conference the following day remained at the hotel.
At around 6pm on Sunday, February 16, the colleague tried to reach Scott on phone, but his mobile phone with a UK-registered number was off.
A missing person report was filed at Nairobi’s Parklands police station that Sunday evening, only for his body to be found a week later in the forest in Makueni.
