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Martin Mburu boarded an Air Arabia flight in Nairobi to Moscow on 21 October, convinced he was heading to a well-paid job as a driver or security guard. He\u2019d been told by Kenyan and Russian recruiters he\u2019d earn 250 000 shillings (about $2 000) a month.<\/p>\n
His wife, Grace Gathoni, last spoke to Mburu on 19 November. Two days later, she saw a report on Kenyan television that the 38-year-old minibus driver had died on the front lines of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine\u2019s Donbas region.<\/p>\n
Read:
South Africa arrests five over alleged military work for Russia
Zuma\u2019s daughter quits as lawmaker over Russia recruitment report<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a shock\u201d, Gathoni said in an interview from her modest home on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital. \u201cHe had no military background and was only given three days of training.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s foreign ministry.<\/p>\n
\nIn some cases, alleged traffickers in Kenya and Russia targeted minibus 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
That was Mburu\u2019s experience. In a voice message sent to his cousin on 23 October, he said, \u201cWe were at what seemed like a major army barracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re now in a bus headed to the camp for training. It is extremely cold here. My tummy\u2019s unwell. And there is a language barrier. We\u2019ll overcome the challenges,\u201d he said. \u201cPlease pray for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hundreds lured to Russia<\/strong><\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Read:
Russia\u2019s push to recruit South African women triggers probe
Russia is sending young Africans to die in its war against Ukraine [Jun 2024]<\/p>\nKenya\u2019s Directorate of Criminal Investigations is actively probing instances of Kenyans being duped into fighting in the Ukraine conflict under false pretences, said Kennedy Amwayi, a state prosecutor involved in one of the cases filed by police.<\/p>\n
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They\u2019re looking at an organised, transnational criminal network that involves recruitment agencies and other businesses in Kenya that work with people in Russia, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ministry is engaging the government of the Russian Federation to facilitate the movement of Kenyan nationals, including those in military camps, to Kenya\u2019s mission in Moscow for onward repatriation,\u201d Kenya\u2019s foreign ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis will ensure that no Kenyan is lured by these corrupt and ruthless agents to travel and get trapped in such dangerous situations,\u201d the ministry added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In November, Kenyan President William Ruto thanked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for helping to secure the release of Kenyans tricked into fighting for Russia.<\/p>\n
The foreign ministry said that 18 Kenyans, some with injuries and admitted to Russian hospitals, have been successfully repatriated to Kenya by the government.<\/p>\n
\nRussia has denied any involvement in recruitment schemes around the world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Russia\u2019s foreign ministry and Nairobi consulate didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a travesty that Kenyans from some of the poorest communities are paying for this crime with their lives,\u201d said Marion Njoroge, executive director of Mount Kenya Defenders, a human rights organisation. \u201cThe authorities need to hold those responsible to account, even if that means rooting out institutional corruption and heads rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read: Zuma\u2019s daughter linked to recruiting Africans for Russian war<\/p>\n
On 25 September, 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.<\/p>\n
They arrested a man, who remains under investigation and \u201cis believed to be working with other suspects who are still at large and are trafficking victims to Moscow,\u201d according to a criminal application filed with the court by Kenya\u2019s Transnational Organised Crimes Investigations Unit.<\/p>\n
\nWitnesses told police that they\u2019d been offered upwards of 250 000 shillings per month, but had not understood they would be recruited into the Russian army.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYou have an organised crime crisis that is going on,\u201d said Hassan Khannenje, director of the HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank in Nairobi. \u201cThat is compounded by unscrupulous individuals sometimes within the government not verifying the authenticity of these organisations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The foreign ministry said the government had taken measures to strengthen the enforcement of licenses and vetting procedures in order to curb rogue agents. \u201cOver 600 noncompliant agencies have been deregistered,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Cannon fodder\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n
Relatives in Kenya suspect their loved ones are being used as \u201cfrontline cannon fodder,\u201d said Wainaina Ngugi, a lawyer representing members of five families from the town of Ruaka who he said have been trafficked to Russia.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Read: South Africa probes how citizens ended up fighting in Ukraine<\/p>\n
Mburu kept up regular correspondence with his family until he died \u2013 and also wrote to the Kenyan government about his plight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to the contract I was offered before my departure, the type of work I was to perform was in security services, cooking, or driving,\u201d Mburu wrote in a letter to Kenya\u2019s ambassador to Russia in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, upon arrival, I discovered that the actual assignment involved being issued a firearm and deployed toward the warfront in Ukraine, which was not stated in my contract and not the kind of work I agreed to undertake.\u201d<\/p>\n
After he landed in Russia, Mburu was taken to a local bank to open an account into which he was told his pay would be\u00a0deposited, according to WhatsApp and voice messages he sent to his wife. He also said he\u2019d been coerced into signing a contract in Russian that he didn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n
Gathoni showed Bloomberg pictures of her husband in full military uniform holding a firearm alongside a man also in camouflage that Mburu said was a Russian military instructor.<\/p>\n
Mburu, Ngugi said, travelled with another Kenyan named Kim whose family hasn\u2019t heard from him since. The two men were initially contacted by a man named Samuel Ngunju, chief executive officer of Savina Consultancy Tours & Travel Ltd., according to Ngugi.<\/p>\n
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Kenyan business registration records show Ngunju as a listed shareholder alongside two others. Ngunju didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Gathoni said Ngunju was an acquaintance of her husband\u2019s and that he had sold the job as a huge opportunity.<\/p>\n
\nMburu \u201cwas so happy because in a way he thought life was about to change for all of us\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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, Ngugi said.<\/p>\n
Read: Ramaphosa and Putin plan call to discuss war on Ukraine, peace push<\/p>\n
Ngugi said he suspected Mburu\u2019s transfer to Russia was \u201cillegally sanctioned by government operatives\u201d in both Kenya and Russia, given the bureaucratic hurdles involved in such a process.<\/p>\n
Back in Gathoni\u2019s garden, she\u2019s put up a memorial and hopes her husband\u2019s body will one day be returned from Russia.<\/p>\n
In one of his final messages to her, Mburu complained that his gun was too heavy to carry around for long periods.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was so confused, but he could not do anything,\u201d she said. \u201cHe would promise me everything would be okay \u2013 then he just vanished.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a02025\u00a0Bloomberg<\/p>\n
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