- Title: Concerned Kenya families demand government answers on Russia military recruits
- Date: 5th March 2026
- Summary: LIMURU, KENYA (RECENT - FEBRUARY 23, 2026) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NJOKI AND MOTHER OF SAMUEL MWAURA LOOKING AT PHONE (SOUNDBITE)(English)WIFE OF RECRUIT SAMUEL MWAURA, FELISTA NJOKI, SAYING: "We don't even get sleep. When you think about him, he is a family man, he likes to call, he talks to his children, he used to call, like, four to five times a day, so, you can imagine
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Conscript Crime Dead Family Fight Government Human International Kenya Missing Politics Relations Russia Soldier Trafficking Ukraine War
- Location: NAIROBI & LIMURU, KENYA
- City: NAIROBI & LIMURU, KENYA
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Africa,Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA004128105032026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Relatives of Kenyan citizens recruited to Russia's military marched to the country's parliament buildings in Nairobi on Thursday (March 5). Holding photographs of their loved ones and chanting "bring back our sons," they handed over a petition to senate, demanding answers from the government to disclose information on the fate of their missing relatives.
Among those family members wanting to know what happened to their loved one is Felista Njoki, wife of one of the missing recruits, Samuel Mwaura (38). Njoki, her two children, and their family had not heard from her husband since October 2025.
Speaking at her home in the town of Limuru, outside Nairobi, Njoki said not knowing what happened to her husband is hard. "We don't even get sleep. When you think about him, he is a family man, he likes to call, he talks to his children, he used to call, like, four to five times a day, so, you can imagine the way it is without the communication," she told Reuters, looking at photos of him on her phone.
At Thursday's picket, Mwaura’s sister, Janet Wanjiku, said they wanted authorities to trace what happened to the recruits, "so we can get closure."
"[O]ur brother, and also the sons of other families, they may be injured, they may be in jail, captured, they maybe at war still, and also they may be dead," Wanjiku continued.
More than 1,700 Africans are fighting for Russia in its Ukraine war, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in February, adding that Moscow was using deception to trick them into fighting.
Kenya's National Intelligence Service said in a report in February that 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 some recruits' travel to fight, putting the number of Kenyans recruited at more than 1,000.
Russia's embassy in Nairobi denied that Moscow was involved in illegally recruiting Kenyans to fight in Ukraine, though it said foreign citizens could voluntarily join its armed forces.
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