Kenya Exposes 'Job Scam' That Sent Recruits To Ukraine Battlefront

2025-09-27 03:08:23

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) According to Ukrinform, the BBC reported this.

The discovery followed a raid on a residential building on the outskirts of Nairobi, where officers seized recruitment materials, travel documents, and job offer letters.

One suspect, accused of coordinating victims' travel to Russia in September and October, was arrested. A court has allowed police to detain him for ten days while investigations continue.

Officials said the arrest on Wednesday followed a coordinated multi-agency security operation targeting the criminal network, which extorted large sums of money from desperate Kenyan job seekers.

In total, 22 Kenyans were found in an apartment in the Athi River area, "awaiting processing to Russia".

Police reported that the“mysterious trafficking syndicate” lured Kenyans with job offers in Moscow, then sent them to fight alongside the Russian military in Ukraine.

Detectives said the victims revealed they had signed contracts with an unnamed overseas employment agency, committing to pay up to $18,000 for visas, travel, accommodation, and other costs. Some had already paid deposits of $1,500.

Authorities added that many Kenyans who had been recruited returned home with physical and psychological trauma - and in some cases, never returned at all. Recently, two Kenyans were repatriated, one of whom is now hospitalized.

A senior Kenyan Foreign Ministry official recently confirmed that the government is investigating reports of several citizens allegedly taken to Russia and currently held as prisoners of war in Ukraine.

Read also: Russia expanding propaganda network in Africa under guise of fighting disinformation

Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War told the BBC that citizens of Somalia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cuba, and Sri Lanka are among those being held in Ukrainian POW camps. Many African governments, however, "show little interest in the return of such citizens and do not wish to take them back," the spokesperson said.

As reported earlier, on the Vovchansk front, soldiers of Ukraine's 57th Motorized Brigade captured a Russian mercenary from Kenya.

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