Lured to Russia for jobs, hundreds of Kenyans wind up fighting in Ukraine

Mr Martin Mburu boarded an Air Arabia flight in Nairobi to Moscow on Oct 21, convinced he was heading to a well-paid job as a driver or security guard. He had been told by Kenyan and Russian recruiters that he would earn 250,000 shillings (S$2,500) a month.

His wife Grace Gathoni last spoke to him on Nov 19. Two days later, she saw a report on Kenyan television that the 38-year-old mini-bus driver had died on the front lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

“It was such a shock,” Ms Gathoni said in an interview from her modest home on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital. “He had no military background and was only given three days of training.” 

Mr Mburu is one of at least 200 Kenyans who, in recent months, have been lured to Russia with the promise of finding a job, according to Kenya’s foreign ministry. In some cases, alleged traffickers in Kenya and Russia targeted mini-bus drivers like him, promising them jobs as drivers before fixing their paperwork and facilitating travel to Russia, where they received a few days of basic military training.

That was Mr Mburu’s experience. In a voice message sent to his cousin on Oct 23, he said they were at what seemed like “a major army barracks”.

“We’re now in a bus headed to the camp for training. It is extremely cold here. My tummy’s unwell. And there is a language barrier. We’ll overcome the challenges,” he said. “Please pray for us.”

Hundreds lured to Russia

Officials in Ukraine said in November that more than 1,400 people from three dozen African countries have wound up fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. That same month, Bloomberg reported that the daughter of former South African president Jacob Zuma was involved in recruiting men from South Africa and Botswana.

Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations is actively probing instances of Kenyans being duped into fighting in the Ukraine conflict under false pretenses, said Mr Kennedy Amwayi, a state prosecutor involved in one of the cases filed by police. 

They are looking at an organised, transnational criminal network that involves recruitment agencies and other businesses in Kenya that work with people in Russia, he said.

“The ministry is engaging the government of the Russian Federation to facilitate the movement of Kenyan nationals, including those in military camps, to Kenya’s mission in Moscow for onward repatriation,” Kenya’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The government continues to urge young Kenyans who get job offers abroad to liaise with the Ministries of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs and Labour and Social Protection to verify the authenticity of opportunities.

“This will ensure that no Kenyan is lured by these corrupt and ruthless agents to travel and get trapped in such dangerous situations,” the ministry added.

In November, Kenyan President William Ruto thanked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for helping to secure the release of Kenyans tricked into fighting for Russia.

The foreign ministry said that 18 Kenyans, some with injuries and admitted to Russian hospitals, have been successfully repatriated to Kenya by the government. Russia has denied any involvement in recruitment schemes around the world. Russia’s foreign ministry and Nairobi consulate did not respond to a request for comment.

“It is a travesty that Kenyans from some of the poorest communities are paying for this crime with their lives,” said executive director of Mount Kenya Defenders, a human rights organisation, Ms Marion Njoroge. “The authorities need to hold those responsible to account, even if that means rooting out institutional corruption and heads rolling.”

On Sept 25, police raided several houses in Machakos County in southern Kenya, where 22 people being trafficked to Russia were rescued, according to court documents and more than 20 witness statements seen by Bloomberg.

They arrested a man, who remains under investigation and “is believed to be working with other suspects who are still at large and are trafficking victims to Moscow”, according to a criminal application filed with the court by Kenya’s Transnational Organised Crimes Investigations Unit.

Witnesses told police that they had been offered upwards of 250,000 shillings per month, but had not understood they would be recruited into the Russian army.

“You have an organised crime crisis that is going on,” said Mr Hassan Khannenje, director of the HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank in Nairobi. “That is compounded by unscrupulous individuals sometimes within the government not verifying the authenticity of these organisations.”

The foreign ministry said the government had taken measures to strengthen the enforcement of licences and vetting procedures in order to curb rogue agents. “Over 600 non-compliant agencies have been deregistered,” it said.

Cannon fodder

Relatives in Kenya suspect their loved ones are being used as “front-line cannon fodder”, said Mr Wainaina Ngugi, a lawyer representing members of five families from the town of Ruaka who he said have been trafficked to Russia.

Families have been unable to retrieve the bodies of their dead relatives, while others have gone months without contact with those still living, he said. 

Mr Mburu kept up regular correspondence with his family until he died – and also wrote to the Kenyan government about his plight.

“According to the contract I was offered before my departure, the type of work I was to perform was in security services, cooking or driving,” Mr Mburu wrote in a letter to Kenya’s ambassador to Russia in November.

“However, upon arrival, I discovered that the actual assignment involved being issued a firearm and deployed towards the warfront in Ukraine, which was not stated in my contract and not the kind of work I agreed to undertake.”

After he landed in Russia, Mr Mburu was taken to a local bank to open an account into which, he was told, his pay would be deposited, according to WhatsApp and voice messages he sent to his wife. He also said he had been coerced into signing a contract in Russian that he did not understand.

Ms Gathoni showed Bloomberg pictures of her husband in full military uniform holding a firearm alongside a man also in camouflage who Mr Mburu said was a Russian military instructor. 

Mr Mburu, Mr Ngugi said, travelled with another Kenyan named Kim, whose family has not heard from him since. The two men were initially contacted by a man named Samuel Ngunju, chief executive officer of Savina Consultancy Tours & Travel, according to Mr Ngugi.

Kenyan business registration records show Mr Ngunju as a listed shareholder alongside two others. Mr Ngunju did not respond to several attempts to reach him by phone. A person who picked up the phone number listed for Savina hung up after a reporter identified himself.

Ms Gathoni said Mr Ngunju was an acquaintance of her husband’s and that he had sold the job as a huge opportunity. Mr Mburu “was so happy because, in a way, he thought life was about to change for all of us”, she said.

Mr Ngugi said the departure of Kenyans from the international airport in Nairobi bound for Russia is facilitated by agents with full access to the airport premises. They meet recruits at the airport and shuttle them through immigration at the airport, he said.

Moreover, consular services at the Russian Embassy in Nairobi have issued single-entry e-visas valid for 30 days to some of his clients traveling to Russia, Mr Ngugi said.

Mr Ngugi said he suspected Mr Mburu’s transfer to Russia was “illegally sanctioned by government operatives” in both Kenya and Russia, given the bureaucratic hurdles involved in such a process. 

Back in Ms Gathoni’s garden, she has put up a memorial and hopes her husband’s body will one day be returned from Russia.

In one of his final messages to her, Mr Mburu complained that his gun was too heavy to carry around for long periods.

“He was so confused, but he could not do anything,” she said. “He would promise me everything would be okay – then he just vanished.” BLOOMBERG