Kenyan Intelligence Says Over 1,000 Citizens Recruited to Fight for Russia in Ukraine

Kenya’s National Intelligence Service(NIS) has revealed that More than 1,000 Kenyans have been lured into fighting in the ongoing Ukraine war as Russian nationals, more than earlier reported by Kenyan officials, said in a parliamentary briefing this week.

The parliamentary briefing was delivered by Parliament Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, who described a network of recruitment agencies, traffickers, and compromised officials who lured desperate Kenyans, former soldiers, and ex police officers, as well as unemployed youths with higher pay, bonuses, and overseas jobs, and later pushed them into the battlefront of Russia and Ukraine.

The recruits, according to the report, would first leave the country on tourist visas and transit from Istanbul and Abu Dhabi before being whisked off to training camps and eventually the Russia-Ukraine front. Some Kenyan nationals were promised and informed of at least Sh350,000 per month as salaries, with up to Sh1.2 million in bonuses.

According to the intelligence report as of February 2026, 89 Kenyans were on the battlefront. 39 others are admitted in the hospital, and 28 are missing in action, and dozens were already repatriated or have been reported to be dead. Their relatives have been protesting in Nairobi, demanding the return of their loved ones to the country.

The Russian embassy in Kenya has refuted claims that it aided the recruitment. The ambassador has said that it has not issued any visas for the sake of fighting and has also reminded that foreign nationals are legally allowed to be part of the Russian army. Kenya said that it would hold discussions with Moscow on ways to prevent its citizens from being trapped in such schemes.

The issue has raised alarm bells across the African continent, with various other countries witnessing similar cases of job exploitation of citizens in foreign conflicts.