The scars on Victor’s forearm are a constant reminder of the day a Ukrainian drone struck him after he was forcibly conscripted – like hundreds of other young Kenyans – into the Russian army.
It was a war that had nothing to do with him, and he was exceptionally fortunate to survive.
Four Kenyans – Victor, Mark, Erik, and Moses – recounted to AFP the web of deception that led them to the killing fields of Ukraine. Their names have been changed for fear of reprisals.
It began with promises of well-paid jobs in Russia from a Nairobi recruitment agency.
Victor, 28, was supposed to be a salesman.
Mark, 32, and Moses, 27, were told they would work as security guards.
Erik, 37, believed he had a ticket to a high-end sports career.
They were all promised salaries between $1,000 and $3,000 a month – a fortune in Kenya, where jobs are scarce and the government encourages emigration to boost remittances.
The four were added to WhatsApp groups where fellow Kenyans reassured them in Swahili that they were heading for lucrative salaries and exciting new lives.
Instead, Victor’s first day was spent in an abandoned house three hours outside Saint Petersburg.
The following day, he was taken to a Russian military base, where soldiers presented him with a contract in Russian – a language he could not read.
“They told us: ‘If you don’t sign, you’re dead,’” Victor told AFP, showing his Russian military service record and combat medallion.
Exciting opportunities
Victor would later meet other Kenyans from the WhatsApp group in a military hospital.
“Some had no legs. Some were missing an arm… They said they were threatened with death if they wrote a negative message in the group,” he said.
Mark explained that new recruits were offered the chance to pay their way home for around $4,000 – an impossible sum.
“We had no option but to sign the contract,” he said.
Erik’s first day was meant to be basketball training, and he signed a contract he believed would place him with a professional club. He did not realise it was actually a military contract. The next day, he was in an army camp.
Mark and Moses say they were paid very little for their year of service, while Victor and Erik say they received nothing.
The four men travelled to Russia via a Kenyan recruitment agency, Global Face Human Resources, which advertises on its website: “Let our HR wizards connect you to exciting opportunities.”
AFP was unable to contact the agency, which has moved several times within Nairobi in recent months.
One employee, Edward Gituku, is being prosecuted for “human trafficking” following a police raid in September on an apartment he rented on the outskirts of the city. Twenty-one young men, about to fly to Russia, were rescued during the raid.
Gituku, released on bail, denies the charges, his lawyer Alex Kubu told AFP.
Clinics
Victor, Mark, Erik and Moses all say they met Gituku and that he played a key role in the scheme. Erik and Moses even say Gituku drove them to Nairobi airport.
Gituku’s previous lawyer, Dunston Omari, told Citizen TV in September that Global Face Human Resources had sent “more than 1,000 people” to Russia, all of whom were former Kenyan soldiers who had “voluntarily” joined the Russian army.
Around that time, Mikhail Lyapin, a Russian citizen implicated in the case, was expelled from Kenya “to stand trial in Russia,” Kenyan Foreign Secretary Abraham Korir Sing’Oei told AFP. The Russian embassy in Kenya said Lyapin had left voluntarily and “had never been an employee of Russian governmental bodies.”
In December, Kenyan authorities reported that around 200 citizens had been sent to fight in Ukraine, with 23 since repatriated. The four recruits said this was an underestimate.
Potential migrants to Russia were required to undergo a medical examination before leaving, and one Nairobi clinic told AFP it had seen 157 people in just over one month last year.
“The majority were former Kenyan soldiers,” said a clinic worker, who added they knew what awaited them in Russia.
While some Kenyans genuinely served as mercenaries for Russia in Ukraine, Mark and Erik – examined at the clinic – said they were never informed that military service awaited them.
Cannon fodder
Victor and Moses attended another Nairobi clinic, Universal Trends Medical and Diagnostic Centre, which declined to say how many individuals were referred by Global Face Human Resources. AFP identified two other recruitment agencies sending Kenyans to Russia but was unable to contact them.
The founder of Global Face Human Resources, Festus Omwamba, visited the Russian embassy in neighbouring Uganda several times last year, a source close to the embassy told AFP. Omwamba did not respond to AFP’s calls.
In the early days of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia was accused of using its own ethnic minorities as expendable forces, throwing large numbers at Ukrainian defences to overwhelm them. The human cost has been huge: Western intelligence services estimate Russian casualties at over 1.2 million – twice as many as Ukraine.
This has pushed Moscow to seek recruits further afield. 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 four returnees said they encountered dozens of Africans in training camps and on the battlefield, including people from Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt and South Africa.
Russia exploits the “economic desperation” of young Africans, Tokar said. “They are looking for people for cannon fodder wherever possible.”
Frontline horrors
Victor recounts apocalyptic scenes near Vovchansk in the Donbas region.
“We had to cross two rivers, with many dead bodies floating. Then there was a big field covered with hundreds of bodies. We had to run to cross it, with drones everywhere,” he said.
“The commander told us, ‘Don’t try to escape or we’ll shoot you,’” he added. Of the 27 in his unit, only two made it across the field. Victor survived by hiding under a corpse but was hit in the right forearm by drone fire.
After two more weeks of missions, during which he could not carry his weapon and maggots infested his wound, he was allowed treatment behind the lines.
A few weeks later, despite the heavy losses, Erik was sent to the same location. Of the 24 in his operation, only three survived – a Pakistani with both legs broken, a Russian with his stomach ripped open, and Erik. He miraculously escaped unscathed, though he was later hit in the arm and leg by drones.
Destroyed my life
Mark bears scars on his shoulder from a grenade launched by a Ukrainian drone as he headed to the front in September.
All three eventually found themselves in a Moscow hospital and escaped to the Kenyan embassy, which helped them return home.
Moses managed to escape his unit in December and contact Kenyan officials.
Though physically unscathed, the men remain traumatised. Even a flying bird can trigger anxiety.
Many Kenyan families have suffered far worse. Grace Gathoni, a single mother of four, learnt in November that her husband Martin, who had planned to work in Russia, was killed in combat.
Charles Ojiambo Mutoka, 72, learnt in January that his son Oscar died in August. His remains are in Rostov-on-Don.
“The Russian authorities should be ashamed,” he said. “We only fight our own wars and never bring Russians to fight for us… so why take our people?”
