Lured to death: The pain of missing Kenyans in Russia-Ukraine war

A report by the US government that put Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi on the spot says Kenyan government officials are deeply involved in the recruitment of citizens to serve in the Russian military.

Mudavadi has consistently distanced the government from the recruitment of Kenyans in the Russia-Ukraine conflict that has so far left many dead, several injured, others missing and scores incarcerated in Ukrainian prisons.

Despite Mudavadi’s position that Kenyans travel to Russia without authorities’ knowledge, the US, on the contrary, says enlistment is done by Kenyan government officials and their Russian counterparts in cahoots with recruitment firms. 

While exposing the level of rot in government, the report turns the spotlight on Kenya’s anti-trafficking efforts, and further validates concerns by families searching for their relatives, civil society and some lawmakers about the government’s complicity.

Although the US does not reveal the identities of the officials involved from both sides, the report deepens general public scepticism toward government transparency on the Kazi Majuu initiative - a flagship programme managed through the State Department for Diaspora Affairs and the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection.

The programme aims to connect skilled and semi-skilled youth with overseas opportunities through bilateral agreements, tailor-made to connect skilled and semi-skilled Kenyan youth with the international job market.

However, there have been concerns that rogue officials, in collaboration with recruitment agencies, could be exploiting loopholes within the programme to enlist gullible and desperate Kenyans into the Russian military.

Latest government reports indicate that over 700,000 Kenyans have secured jobs abroad through the programme that targets 1 million migrant workers. 

When questions were raised after some of the potential workers failed to travel for the promised overseas jobs, albeit after paying facilitation fees, the government, in a face-saving move, ostensibly shut down more than 600 recruitment agencies.

Speaking in Doha last November at the sidelines of the United Nations Social Development Summit, President William Ruto said the agencies were delisted to protect Kenyans seeking jobs abroad.

"To safeguard Kenyan workers, more than 600 rogue labour agencies have been deregistered. The deployment is now limited to countries with formal bilateral labour agreements with Kenya,” said Ruto.

Addressing the Kenyan diaspora, the Head of State vowed to ensure Kenyan workers are protected and their rights upheld in foreign countries.

But the US government, in its report titled ‘2026 Trafficking in Persons’, found collusion between Nairobi, Moscow and rogue agencies that lure young adults, former police and military officers, under the guise of civilian jobs, only to be taken into battlefields in Ukraine, which is waging war against Russia’s expansionist agenda, ensnaring Kenyans as mercenaries. 

“Officials reported some Kenyan officials colluded with recruitment agencies and government officials from Russia to facilitate the fraudulent recruitment of more than 1,000 Kenyan men to fight for the Russian military in the Russia-Ukraine war,” says the report.

Further, the government did not report taking action against recruitment agencies reportedly owned by government employees that were found complicit in facilitating trafficking crimes.

Instead, according to the US report, lesser charges such as failing to register a recruitment company were frequently imposed.

The revelations place Mudavadi in the limelight over his handling of the matter as families whose relatives are trapped in the Russia-Ukraine conflict demand their repatriation, whether alive or dead.

Last Thursday in the Senate, Mudavadi, who is also the Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, clashed with petitioners representing families over the exact number of Kenyans involved in the war thousands of miles away.

Mudavadi told the Senate National Security and Labour committees that his office had documented 354, the number of Kenyans involved in the conflict, while affected families maintained that they had documented 841 citizens.

“Russia is the size of half the African continent; the war is happening thousands of kilometres from Moscow; the number of Kenyans that we can confirm are involved is 354. However, the numbers could be even more than the 841 figure given by the petitioners since most of them did not register with the embassy,” he said.

In February this year, against the backdrop of government denials, an intelligence report tabled in the National Assembly indicated that about 1,000 Kenyans had been lured to fight for Russia.

The report filed by the National Intelligence Service (NIS), while giving details of the recruiters and institutions involved, revealed that some 89 Kenyans were actively in combat.

According to the Kenyan government, about 84 Kenyans have either been killed or are missing in Action; 77 are on the front lines, 54 are in unknown locations, 38 are in camps, 34 are hospitalised, 62 have been repatriated, while five are prisoners of war.

Mudavadi told Senators that the Russian government had ceased recruitment of Kenyans after Nairobi secured the country’s placement on Russia’s ‘Stop List’ during his visit to Moscow in March.

“The Embassy of Kenya in Moscow has since confirmed that no additional Kenyan nationals have been enlisted in the Special Military Operation following the implementation of the Stop List,” he said.

Russian authorities maintain that requests to terminate the contracts will be considered on a case-by-case basis by individual military unit commanders.

Kenyan law prohibits citizens from joining foreign militaries or serving as mercenaries – the US report appears to challenge Nairobi’s official position that no

Kenyan involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict has the full backing of government.

The report made public on October 8, 2026, says around 10 per cent of government officials hold ownership stakes in private employment agencies, a situation that raises conflict-of-interest concerns.

That the Kenyan recruits were enticed with promises of lucrative jobs in security or construction, only to be pressured into signing contracts with Russia's Defence Ministry.

The US government faults the Kenyan government for what it describes as insufficient action against recruitment agencies said to be owned by public officials and linked to trafficking-related offences.

The report says corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action.

Amid the US report highlighting the Kenyan government’s inconsistency in the war against human trafficking, Mudavadi admitted in the Senate that circumstances surrounding recruitment and conscription in the Russian military are consistent with trafficking in persons as defined under Article 3(a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Palermo Protocol).

Peter Gitau, who is the lead petitioner, appealed to the Senate to conduct an inquiry into the recruitment, transportation and deployment of Kenyan nationals into the Russian military.

The petitioners called for the establishment of a mechanism for death verification, identification and treatment of remains, including DNA support, notification standards and prior consultation with families.

They further called for investigation into recruitment agencies, brokers, financial beneficiaries, and any public or diplomatic officials reasonably suspected of facilitating or obstructing the recruitment of Kenyans into the Russian army.

“We are appealing for the facilitation of the voluntary return of living Kenyans, with individual assessment, medical care and protection on return; that every returnee be individually screened for indicators of trafficking, coercion and deception before any prosecution decision is made”, said Gitau.

The petitioners demanded structured assistance to affected families and returnees, including psychosocial care, medical treatment, legal assistance, reintegration support and access to victim-support mechanisms.

“We are calling for the identification and preservation of wages, accounts and benefits due to affected persons, and assistance to affected persons and their lawful beneficiaries in establishing and exercising any rights to those funds, together with clarification of the legal basis, eligibility criteria and procedure for any compensation offered to families,” added Gitau.

According to the US report, despite ongoing concerns of official complicity in trafficking crimes, which hindered both law enforcement efforts and victim identification, the Kenyan government reported minimal law enforcement action against allegedly complicit officials as protection services for victims, particularly adults, remained limited.

The report indicates that three officials at the Labour Ministry were investigated for allegedly accepting bribes to facilitate potential trafficking crimes involving migrant workers travelling to the Middle East. It was not clear what subsequent actions were taken against the three suspects.

“More than 1,000 Kenyan men were fraudulently recruited to fight for the Russian military in Ukraine. Kenyan men are recruited with promises of high-paying security or construction jobs and later coerced into signing contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence,” says the report, adding that most of the recruitment agencies registered by the National Employment Agency (NEA) are run through proxy ownership.

The US established that unscrupulous actors, including Russian officials and rogue recruiters, fraudulently recruited women aged 18-22 from Africa, including Kenya, for vocational training programmes and subsequently placed them in military drone production sites.

“Workers at these sites are subjected to hazardous conditions, surveillance, hour and wage violations, contract switching, and worker-paid recruitment fees, all of which were indicators of human trafficking,” says the report.