Kenyan charged with luring young men to fight for Russia in Ukraine

Police in Kenya have charged a man accused of luring young men to Russia with job opportunities, only for them to end up fighting in Ukraine.

Festus Arasa Omwamba, head of recruitment agency Global Faces Human Resources, recruited 22 Kenyans “for the purpose of exploitation by means of deception”, state prosecutors said on Thursday.

The victims were rescued last September from an apartment complex in Athi River, a town near the capital, Nairobi, before they could travel to Russia.

However, three others had already left Kenya, finding themselves on the front line of the war and returning home with injuries, the prosecutors added. Omwamba, aged 33, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

A total of 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight for Russia in its four-year war against Ukraine, a report from Kenya’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), released last week, said.

Presenting the report to MPs, parliament majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah, described a “deeply disturbing” network of rogue state officials allegedly colluding with human trafficking syndicates to recruit and transport Kenyans.

Omwamba was arrested earlier this month in a town near the Ethiopian border after surrendering to police.

Victims rescued from the Athi Rivers complex last September revealed they had signed contracts with an unnamed overseas employment agency, committing to pay up to $18,000 (£13,000) for visas, travel, accommodation, and other logistics, the police said.

The National Intelligence Service said that upon arrival in Russia, many Kenyans reportedly find themselves deployed to front-line combat roles after minimal military training.

Earlier this month, the government of the East African country said it would urge Russia to ban the recruitment of Kenyans to fight in Ukraine.

The Russian embassy in Nairobi has denied encouraging Kenyans to fight in Ukraine, or issuing visas “to Kenyan citizens who sought to travel to Russia with the stated pose of participating in the Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine”.

The embassy added that while it does not recruit foreigners, Russian law allows foreign nationals who are legally in Russia to voluntarily enlist in their armed forces.

Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that more than 1,700 people from 36 countries in Africa had been recruited to fight for Russia.

South Africa on Thursday said that two of its citizens had been killed in Ukraine, while another 15 had been repatriated over the past week. Two more remain in Russia getting treatment for “very severe” injuries, said Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that anyone fighting for Russia will be treated as an enemy combatant, and that the only safe route out is to surrender and be treated as a prisoner of war.

However, Ukraine itself has previously come in for criticism for trying to recruit foreign nationals, including Africans, to fight on its side.