Over 1,000 Kenyans recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine, report says

More than 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight on Russia’s side in the war in Ukraine, according to a Kenyan intelligence report presented to lawmakers this week, five times more than authorities had previously estimated. The Russian Embassy in Nairobi denied on Thursday that Moscow was involved in illegally recruiting Kenyans to fight in Ukraine, though it said foreign citizens could voluntarily join its armed forces. Reading the report of Kenya’s National Intelligence Service to lawmakers on Wednesday, Parliament Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah described a network of rogue state officials it said had colluded with human trafficking syndicates to recruit Kenyans to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The recruiters targeted former soldiers and police officers, as well as unemployed people, with promises that they would earn some 350,000 shillings ($2,715) per month and get bonuses of up to 1.2 million shillings ($9,309). “So far over 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited and departed to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war,” Ichung’wah said. Kenya said in November that over 200 of its citizens were fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

That same month Ukraine said some 1,400 citizens from three dozen African countries were fighting alongside Russian forces on its territory, with some recruited through deception. As of February 2026, 89 Kenyans were on the Ukrainian frontline, 39 were hospitalized, and 28 missing in action, the new report said. Those enlisted initially left Kenya on tourist visas and travelled to Russia via Turkey or the United Arab Emirates, it said.

[paywall]

After Kenya tightened surveillance at Nairobi airport, the recruits started travelling via Uganda, South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo. Recruitment agencies colluded with rogue Kenyan airport staff, immigration and other state officials, and with staff at the Russian Embassy in Nairobi and at the Kenyan Embassy in Moscow to facilitate the recruits’ travel, the report said. “The government authorities of Russia have never engaged in illegal recruitment of Kenyan citizens in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”

[/paywall]