Love gone wrong: UK nurse wins back Sh92 million from Kenyan ex-lover

What started as a romantic relationship and marriage promise between Nicole Borrough and her Kenyan lover Joseph Mungania quickly spiralled into a deceitful scheme driven by sheer greed.

The greed almost robbed Borrough, a Briton, her Sh92,196,858 worth of life savings and investments.

Borrough sold off all her assets, including a ranch, cattle, horses, a horse truck and a car, and took out a mortgage in the UK to relocate to Kenya to live with her newly found lover.

It all started in 2014.

Burrough, an established UK nurse, met and fell in love with Mungania, a curio artist and tour guide in Ukunda, Kwale County, while she was on tour at the Kenyan coast.

The romantic relationship came with promises of marriage, with Burrough allegedly promising to divorce the husband and permanently retire in Kenya with Mungania.

According to the court records, Borrough indeed took a mortgage facility of 54,650 pounds (Sh9,509,100) against her farm known as Dolalau Isaf, Boncath, Pembrokeshire SA737 0JS. She later sold it for of 216,904.10 pounds (37,741,296).

She further sold a property described as Deanlands, Blaenwaum, Whitland SA 340HX for 312,963.20 pounds (Sh54,455,562) as confirmed by Lewis & Lewis Company Limited, the instructing firm in the UK, through a letter dated March 29, 2019, with all the funds intended for the purchase of properties in Kenya.

Due to the trust and confidence between Burrough and Mungania, she entrusted him with Sh21 million to purchase and develop two parcels of land in Ukunda, Kwale County and also sent him an additional Sh2 million to buy a car and asked his new found lover to register the properties in her name as the sole beneficial owner.

Mungania secured the said two parcels and bought a Toyota Hilux pick-up as agreed but deceitfully decided to register the suit properties in both their names and declined to hand over the said title deeds and logbook.

In her appeal, Borrough told Justices Agnes Murgor, Kibaya Laibuta and Ngenye Macharia that Mungania proceeded to threaten her not to set foot in Kenya lest she be harmed by gangsters.

She later discovered that Mungania allegedly forged her signature and procured registration of the suit properties in both their joint names on the pretext that Kenyan law prohibits foreigners from owning land in their sole names.

Borrough says Mungania further registered the motor vehicle solely in his name in flagrant violation of the understanding between them.

She told the judges that the said assets were being held in trust for her benefit and that Mungania was bound to account for and revert ownership to her unconditionally.

Borrough told the judges that she secured funds through a mortgage advanced in the UK as well as pension benefits and sent money to Mungania to facilitate construction of a home, complete with a perimeter wall, in Ukunda.

The nurse says that during one of her visits to Kenya, she found that Mungania had altered the construction plans of her retirement home and was constructing rental apartments instead.

Borrough says that, later, on his own volition and without consulting her, Mungania advertised the assets for sale through Bidi Badu Solutions and also proceeded to sell the pickup for Sh1.7 million and failed to remit the proceeds to her.

She says Mungania’s failure to remit the money obtained from the sale of the motor vehicle was in breach of the trust between them for which she claimed special damages.

Borrough says that the estranged boyfriend committed fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, illegality and breach of trust.

Mungania, however, says that he decided to insert Borrough’s name in the title deeds of the two suit properties since he was in love with her and that he thought that they would ultimately get married.

He says that the registration of Borrough’s name on the title of the suit properties was through deceit and fraudulent representation by Borrough, who promised to marry him after finalising her divorce in the UK.

According to Mungania, the two met at his curio shop through a friend named Cathy, and later the romantic relationship broke down due to irreconcilable differences.

Mungania says he raised the money from selling artefacts and curios in the UK through Borrough, who then remitted the proceeds to him through a Western Union money transfer.

He says that he had an equitable and beneficial interest in the suit properties and that he was rightly registered as a joint proprietor, having solely financed the purchase and development of the suit properties without any direct contribution from his estranged lover.

Mungania says Borrough only contributed Sh6,700,000 in small tranches that could not be used towards the purchase of the suit properties,

On May 23, 2023, Justice Stephne Kibunja dismissed Borrough’s claim of ownership and awarded the suit properties to Mungania, including the monies gained from selling the motor vehicle.

The appellate court, however, came to Borrough’s rescue by dismissing Justice Kibunja’s ruling and holding that she was the sole owner of the said suit properties, having contributed the funds that were religiously sent to Mungania.

Justices Murgor, Laibuta and Macharia said they were not convinced that Mungania substantially contributed to the purchase and development of the suit properties with the total sum of Sh4,757,000 earned from the sale of his seven-acre land in Meru and commissions from tours.

The appellate judges also ordered Mungania to refund Borrough Sh1,530,000.