Lies, horror, trauma: Kenyans recount forced Russian recruitment

The scars on Victor's forearm remind him constantly of the day a Ukrainian drone attacked him after he was forcibly conscripted, like hundreds of young Kenyans, into the Russian army.

It was a war that had nothing to do with him and which he was exceptionally lucky to survive.

Four Kenyans -- Victor, Mark, Erik and Moses -- recounted to AFP the web of deception that took them to the killing fields of Ukraine. Their names have been changed for fear of reprisals.

It began with promises of well-paying jobs in Russia from a Nairobi recruitment agency.

Victor, 28, was supposed to be a salesman.

Mark, 32, and Moses, 27, were told they would be security guards.

Erik, 37, thought he had a ticket to high-end sports.

They were all to be paid between $1,000 and $3,000 a month -- a fortune in Kenya where jobs are scarce and the government encourages emigration to boost remittances.

Victor, Mark, Erik and Moses were included in WhatsApp groups where fellow Kenyans reassured them in Swahili that they were heading for good salaries and exciting new lives.

Instead, Victor's first day was in an abandoned house three hours outside Saint-Petersburg.

The next day, he was taken to a Russian military base where soldiers presented him with a contract in Russian that he could not read.

"They told us: 'If you don't sign, you're dead'," Victor told AFP, showing his Russian military service record and combat medallion.

'Exciting opportunities'

Victor would later meet some of the Kenyans from the WhatsApp group in a military hospital.

"Some had no legs. Some were missing an arm... They told me they were threatened with death if they wrote a negative message on the group," he said.

Mark said new recruits were offered the chance to pay their way home for around $4,000 -- an impossible sum.

"We had no option but signing the contract," he said.

Erik's first day was training with a basketball team and he signed a contract he believed would land him with a professional club.

He did not know it was actually a military contract.

The next day he was in an army camp.

Mark and Moses say they were paid very little for their year of service. Victor and Erik say they received nothing.

The four men left for Russia through a Kenyan recruitment agency, Global Face Human Resources, which boasts on its website: "Let our HR wizards connect you to exciting opportunities".

AFP was unable to speak to the agency, which has relocated several times within the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in recent months.

One of its employees, Edward Gituku, is being prosecuted for "human trafficking" after a police raid in September on an apartment he rented on the outskirts of the city.

Twenty-one young men, who were about to fly to Russia, were rescued in the raid.

Gituku, released on bail, denies the charges, his lawyer Alex Kubu told AFP.

Clinics

Victor, Mark, Erik and Moses all say they met Gituku and that he was a key player in the scam.

Erik and Moses even say Gituku drove them to Nairobi airport.

Gituku's previous lawyer, Dunston Omari, told Citizen TV in September that Global Face Human Resources had sent "more than 1,000 people" to Russia but all were former Kenyan soldiers who had "voluntarily" joined the Russian army.

Around that time, Mikhail Lyapin, a Russian citizen implicated in the case, was expelled from Kenya "to stand trial in Russia" at the request of the Russian authorities, Kenyan Foreign Secretary Abraham Korir Sing'Oei told AFP.

The Russian embassy in Kenya stated in a press release that Lyapin had left Kenya voluntarily and had "never been an employee of Russian governmental bodies". It did not respond to emailed questions from AFP.

In December, Kenyan authorities said around 200 citizens had been sent to fight in Ukraine, with 23 since repatriated.

This is an underestimate, said the four recruits who spoke to AFP.

Potential migrants to Russia had to undergo a medical examination before leaving and just one of multiple Nairobi clinics told AFP they saw 157 in little over one month last year.

"The majority were former Kenyan soldiers" who knew what awaited them in Russia, said a worker at the clinic.

There have been reports of genuine Kenyan mercenaries fighting for Russia in Ukraine but Mark and Erik, who were examined at the clinic, said they were never informed of their future military service.