Love, lies and lost fortunes: The high cost of romance at Kenya's coast

Kenyan Coast has wooed many with its pristine beaches, warm climate , kind people and the proverbial peaceful  retirement. But behind the picture perfect life lies heartache, betrayal and death.

It always starts with a holiday trip, love at first site, a marriage, relocation, then comes mysterious deaths and swindling of assets and investments.

When Joel Fitzpatrick arrived in Watamu, Kilifi County, from the United States, like an explorer, his heart fell in love with the land, and a lady of the soil.

Smitten with the beauty of the woman he believed to be the love of his life, he married her. Just like Samson in the bible, he surrendered all his powers by registering properties and investments worth sh89 million to her only to be betrayed, divorced and left living a pauper’s life.

Fitzpartrick, an Irish man who made the American dream come true in the US did not gamble it all in a Casino in Las Vegas or Miami, but to a Kenyan woman that he once loved and trusted.

Firtzpatrick sold businesses abroad and liquidated his life savings and part of his inheritance to purchase a beachfront house in Watamu, a Toyota Hilux Double Cab and a Subaru Outback all which were registered in the names of his estranged wife.

"I came to Kenya because I believed I had found the love of my life. I wanted to invest, create businesses, contribute to the economy and spend the rest of my life here. Instead, I lost everything," said Fitzpatrick.

However, Fitzpatrick dreams of establishing businesses, owning a home and settling permanently with his family came tumbling down like the Tower of Babel after the wife divorced and threw him out.

According to Fitzpatrick, he entrusted his wife with the transactions after she allegedly informed him that he could not immediately open a Kenyan bank account because he did not yet have a Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) PIN.

He alleges that following a series of domestic disputes, his wife filed for divorce, which was subsequently granted by the court and has since retained ownership of the disputed assets.

Fitzpatrick alleges of a scheme to eliminate him following an attempted robbery near a café in Watamu last week and believes the incident may have been linked to the ongoing dispute.

He is now appealing for help from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and US Embassy in Nairobi to help get back his assets from a woman he once trusted with his life.

"I only want justice. I believe the courts will establish the truth, recover my property and hold those responsible accountable," he said.

Fitzpatrick story is no exception, on May 15 2026, the Appellate Court in Mombasa came to the rescue of Nicole Borrough, a UK nurse who had been swindled Sh92.1 million by her Kenyan lover.

What started as a romantic relationship and marriage promises between Borrough and his Kenyans lover Joseph Mungania quickly spiralled into a deceitful scheme driven by greed, almost robing her sh.92,196,858 million worth of life savings and investments.

Borrough sold off all her assets including a ranch, cattle, horses, horse truck, car and took a mortgage in UK with hopes of permanently relocating to Kenya to live with the newly found lover only to be duped, almost losing everything to Mungania had the appellate court not intervened.

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.

To relocate in Kenya, Burrough disposed all her assets including a ranch, cattle, horses, horse truck, car and her life savings and pensions and even took a mortgage on her house.

According to the court evidence, Borrough indeed took a mortgage facility of 54,650 pounds (sh.9,509,100) against her farm known as Dolalau Isaf, Boncath, Pembrokeshire SA737 0JS, but she later sold it for a consideration 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 (sh.54,455,562) as confirmed by the instructing firm in the UK Lewis & Lewis Company Limited 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 earned 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 tittle deeds and logbook.

In her appeal, Borrough told Justices Agnes Murgor, Kibaya Laibuta and Ngenye Macharia that Mungania proceeded to threaten her not to step 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 the Kenyan law prohibits foreigners from owning land in their sole names unless jointly owned by a Kenyan citizen.

Another case is of Riziki Cherono, described as the most intriguing of all times in the corridors of justice driven by the ‘wanting it all, at all cost lifestyle.’

Her life was defined with abundancy of wealth, high end and posh lifestyle, endless entertainment, power, influence courtesy of her twin Dutch husbands.

Cherono took the phrase “If a man can do it a woman can do it better “ literally and was married to two Dutch tycoon brothers William Rouwenhorst and Herman Rouwenhorst at different times and sired three children with them both

On September 2021, it was revealed in court that Cherono was married to the brothers who have vast investment in entertainment and real estate in Mombasa and Kilifi County.

She was later in September 2021 charged with orchestrating the murder of 55 years old Herman who had allegedly threatened to divorce her according to police reports in court.

Cherono was charged alongside Mary Ambani and Timothy Ngowe with the murder of Herman and Evans Bokoro, a security guard manning the gate to their palatial home at Roco Apartments in Shanzu, Mombasa County on June 4 2021.

Ambani’s sentence was reduced to manslaughter after she confessed to letting in Ngowe and other killers into Herman’s house and disposing the phone used to communicate with the killers.

On June 2026, Justice Wendy Micheni found Cherono and Ngowe with a case to answer for allegedly orchestrating the gruesome murder of Herman.

According to a marriage certificate produced in court by investigations officer Reuben Mwaniki in 2021, Cherono was married to William. Further a birth certificate showed that she bore children with the two brothers at different times.

Mwaniki further produced a birth certificate of a child born out of Cherono and Williams' marriage.

The officer said that Cherono also sired two children with the late Herman. Cherono's children were among the prosecution witnessess placed under witness protection.

Mwaniki told the court that Cherono planned, procured and facilitated the perpetrators who killed Herman for her own benefit.

In 2021, an 82-year-old Wolfgang Theodor Fischer allegedly shot himself dead after his Kenyan lover swindled him of all the properties, he had invested with his life savings.

The German national left a suicide note addressed to the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) in Diani protesting the wrangles with his in-laws over properties worth millions.

According to Fischer’s friends, he was a depressed man suffering prostrate cancer and struggled to pay his medical bills.

In the suicide note, Fischer said that he had struggled to pay medical bills and that he had reportedly lost all his savings, land and other property to his wife's kins.

Equally, In March 2021, 66 years old German investor, Reiner Hans Hermann Kreplin, accused his 24 years old girlfriend of vanishing with sh5.4 million from their villa in Diani.

In April 2020, a German tycoon identified as Mähne said that he was forced to live in the streets after his Kenyan lover disappeared with sh6 million.

Mahne said that his girlfriend allegedly swept his Diani house clean and made away with property worth sh6 million forcing him to find shelter in the streets.

Mähne who arrived in the country in 2018 claimed he fell in love with a lady who turned out to be a thief.

In October 2015,  John Eugene Bennet an American citizen broke into tears in court while narrating how his Kenyan wife and mother-in-law swindled his hard-earned cash.

Bennet accused his wife, Karungari Gacoki Murigu and her mother-in-law of conspiring to take away his property by registering it in her name.

"I have limited funds. All my accounts are in the name of my Kenyan wife with whom we have a four-year-old son and an eight-month-old daughter. I married her in 2008. Here I am now, I cannot help myself. My wife set me up. She and my mother-in-law cannot allow me to see my children," said Bennet.

He told the court that the wife and mother planned to have him deported.

According to Coast Human Rights Network chair Mr Michael Magak, they reviewed documents presented by Fitzpatrick and believe the allegations warrant comprehensive investigations by the relevant law enforcement agencies.

Magak urged investigators to examine the financial transactions, ownership records of the disputed property and vehicles, and any other issues raised in the complaint.