Keypoints:
- Nairobi agents promised jobs but delivered combat
- Survivors describe coercion, unpaid service and drone attacks
- Families left grieving as investigations widen
THE jagged scars running down Victor’s right forearm are more than wounds – they are a permanent record of how a Nairobi job advert turned into a nightmare on Ukraine’s frontline.
Within weeks of leaving Kenya, the 28-year-old found himself sprinting across a corpse-strewn battlefield while Ukrainian drones hunted him from above. He had never wanted to fight, never trained as a soldier, and had no stake in Russia’s war.
Victor’s ordeal forms part of a wider trafficking and recruitment pipeline that drew young Africans to Russia with promises of work, only to funnel them into military service in Ukraine – a pattern now under criminal investigation in Nairobi and drawing international scrutiny.
Victor is one of four returnees – alongside Mark, 32, Erik, 37, and Moses, 27 – who spoke to Agence France-Presse (AFP) about a web of deception that stretched from WhatsApp chat groups in Kenya to battlefields in the Donbas. Their names have been changed for safety.
All four began with the same hope: a well-paid job abroad at a time when formal employment in Kenya remains scarce and labour migration is actively promoted to boost remittances.
Victor was told he would be a salesman. Mark and Moses were promised security roles. Erik believed he was being scouted for high-level basketball opportunities. Salaries of between $1,000 and $3,000 a month were advertised – a fortune by Kenyan standards.
Recruiters steered them into WhatsApp groups where other Kenyans posted upbeat messages in Swahili about good pay, modern apartments and ‘new beginnings’. None of it reflected what awaited them.
From Nairobi airport to a Russian barracks
Victor’s reality collapsed almost immediately after landing in Russia. Instead of accommodation or a workplace, he was taken to an abandoned house three hours outside Saint Petersburg.
The next day, he was driven to a Russian military base and handed a contract written entirely in Russian.
‘They told us: “If you don’t sign, you’re dead”,’ Victor told AFP, producing a Russian military service record and combat medallion.
Within weeks, he was in a military hospital where he met other Kenyans recruited through the same network. Some had lost limbs; others were permanently disabled. They warned him that negative messages in the WhatsApp groups could lead to punishment.
Mark said recruits were offered a grim exit option: pay around $4,000 to return home – a sum far beyond their reach.
‘We had no option but signing the contract,’ he said.
Erik’s deception was subtler. His first day in Russia involved basketball training, reinforcing his belief that he was on track for a professional career. He signed what he thought was a sports contract. The next day, he was inside an army camp.
After a year of service, Mark and Moses said they received only token payments. Victor and Erik said they were not paid at all.
A recruitment network under investigation
All four men travelled through Global Face Human Resources, a Nairobi-based agency that advertises online: ‘Let our HR wizards connect you to exciting opportunities.’
AFP says it was unable to reach the firm, which has changed offices multiple times in recent months.
In September, police raided an apartment on Nairobi’s outskirts and rescued 21 young men about to be flown to Russia. One employee, Edward Gituku, was arrested and charged with human trafficking. He was later released on bail and denies wrongdoing, his lawyer Alex Kubu told AFP.
Erik and Moses both said Gituku personally drove them to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
In a television interview, Gituku’s former lawyer, Dunston Omari, claimed the agency had sent ‘more than 1,000 people’ to Russia – all former Kenyan soldiers who volunteered to fight. The returnees reject that claim.
Meanwhile, a Russian national linked to the case, Mikhail Lyapin, was expelled from Kenya ‘to stand trial in Russia’, according to Foreign Secretary Abraham Korir Sing’Oei. The Russian embassy said Lyapin left voluntarily and was never a government employee, but declined further comment.
Kenyan authorities now say around 200 citizens were sent to fight in Ukraine, with 23 repatriated so far. The four returnees believe the true figure is much higher.
Medical checks were mandatory before departure. One Nairobi clinic told AFP it screened 157 prospective migrants in just over a month last year, most described as former soldiers. Yet Mark and Erik insist they were never told they would be enlisted.
‘Cannon fodder’ from Africa
Victor and Moses were processed through Universal Trends Medical and Diagnostic Centre, which declined to reveal how many recruits it handled.
AFP identified at least two other agencies involved in sending Kenyans to Russia but could not reach them.
A source close to the Russian embassy in Uganda said Global Face founder Festus Omwamba visited the mission several times in 2024. He did not respond to AFP’s calls.
As Russia’s war has dragged on, its recruitment net has widened. Western intelligence estimates suggest Moscow has suffered more than 1.2 million casualties – roughly double Ukraine’s losses.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Kenya, Yurii Tokar, said Russia first targeted former Soviet republics in Central Asia, then India and Nepal, before turning to Africa.
The returnees said they encountered fighters from Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt and South Africa in training camps and on the frontline.
Tokar accused Moscow of exploiting ‘economic desperation’.
‘They are looking for people for cannon fodder everywhere it is possible,’ he said.
Frontline horror near Vovchansk
Victor described apocalyptic scenes near Vovchansk in eastern Ukraine.
He said his unit had to cross two rivers filled with floating bodies before sprinting across an open field carpeted with the dead while drones circled overhead.
‘The commander tells you: “Don’t try to escape or we shoot you”,’ he recalled.
Of 27 men in his unit, only two made it across. Victor survived by hiding beneath a corpse but was hit in the forearm by a drone strike.
For two more weeks he was forced onto missions despite being unable to hold his weapon. His wound became infested with maggots before he was finally pulled back for treatment.
Weeks later, Erik was sent to the same area under the same tactics. Of 24 men, only three crossed the field alive: a Pakistani who broke both legs, a Russian with severe abdominal injuries, and Erik, who was later wounded in the arm and leg by drones.
Mark was injured in September by a grenade dropped from a Ukrainian drone while heading to the front. He still does not know exactly where he was.
All three wounded men eventually reached a Moscow hospital and later escaped to the Kenyan embassy, which helped arrange their return.
Moses fled his unit in December and contacted Kenyan officials directly. Though physically unharmed, he says even a flying bird now triggers panic.
Families shattered back home
For many Kenyan families, the consequences have been devastating.
Grace Gathoni learned in November that her husband Martin – who believed he was going to be a driver in Russia – had been killed in combat. Left with four children, she told AFP: ‘Moscow has destroyed my life.’
In January, 72-year-old Charles Ojiambo Mutoka was told his son Oscar had died in August. His remains are buried in Rostov-on-Don.
‘The Russian authorities should be ashamed,’ he said.
‘We only fight our own wars and we never bring Russians to fight for us… so why take our people?’
As legal cases unfold in Nairobi and diplomatic tensions simmer, Victor, Mark, Erik and Moses say they are still fighting a different battle – against trauma, betrayal and the memory of a war that was never theirs.
