In October 2025, as his pipeline contract in Qatar was about to expire, Clinton Nyapara Mogesa called his brother, Vincent, in Kenya, to say he had found another job—this time, in Russia. He did not say what kind of work it was.
Two days after arriving in Moscow, Clinton told Vincent that he was starting military training. Weeks later, he said he was waiting for a shipment. After that the calls went dead.
Mogesa’s family learned what happened months later from Ukrainian military intelligence, which published photos of Clinton and reported her death in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine in January. It was the family’s first confirmation that he had been sent to the front line.
Clinton Mogesa’s behavior shows a broad structure across Africawhere promises of employment abroad can be entry points into distant wars. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, Mogesa was carrying the passports of two other Kenyan nationals at the time of his death, which Ukraine assessed may have belonged to “persons recruited under the same circumstances as are expected for future offensive operations.”
Since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has increasingly turned to foreign troops to fuel its war effort, attracting fighters from abroad. Asia,, Middle East, South Americaand Africa. While foreign recruitment remains a small part of the Russian forces, Ukrainian intelligence he warns that Moscow plans to recruit at least 18,500 foreign fighters in 2026, suggesting that the strategy could gain momentum.
Across Africa, recruitment has become entrenched through informal networks promising jobs abroad, blurring the line between voluntary registration and trafficking. Nairobi has accepted and condemned the recruitment of Russians within its borders, making Kenya a destination for families seeking help and in-depth investigations into the wider issue.
Center of Strategic and International Studies and Ukrainian military projections that Russian forces have to suffer about 1.3 million casualties throughout the war, creating a continuous demand for workers. After a partial mobilization in 2022, the Kremlin has relied more on contract troops rather than setting another dangerous political wave of conscription. Foreign employers have become a small part of the system.
According to Kenya’s National Intelligence Service, more than 1,000 Kenyans have been to be employed to fight in the Russian war in Ukraine, and 39 have been hospitalized30 were repatriated, and 28 were not found at work as of February 18. At that time, the Kenyan government also assessed that 35 were in camps or military camps, 89 were on the front line, one was detained, and one had completed their contract. At least one—Mogesa—has been killed, although Ukrainian military intelligence has been killed information two additional Kenyan deaths, and some families are holding on reminder services for relatives who are believed to have died in the war.
According to Kenyan authorities, the recruitment program is facilitated by local agencies—some operating informally, others as registered outsourcing companies—working with intermediaries linked to networks in Russia and the Middle East. These organizations advertise overseas jobs targeting ex-servicemen, police officers, and unemployed youth. The offers include salaries of approx $2,700 per month; signing bonuses; and, in some cases, promises of fast-tracked Russian citizenship.
Many employers believe they are traveling for civilian jobs as drivers, cooks, or hotel workers, explained Fred Ojiro, who works at Vocal Africa, a Nairobi-based human rights group that supports affected families.
“These are not soldiers who signed up to fight,” Ojiro said. “They are young people who believed they were traveling for normal work and instead found themselves in a war with no way out.”
But some people are signing up to fight voluntarily, said Pauline Bax, deputy program director for Africa at the International Conflict Group. In most parts of the continent, high youth unemployment and decrease in migration routes to Europe have pushed migrants to alternative routes such as China, the Persian Gulf states, and Russia, where precarious jobs can be difficult to turn down.
“People are taking the opportunity to go and get visas to Russia, especially now that European visas have become more difficult,” Bax said. Many migrants, he added, do not fully understand the risks involved.
Hiring ecosystem operates as a broad, multifaceted network that ranges from social media platforms to military simulation video games. Posts promoting military service have proliferated on apps such as Telegram and Russia’s VKontakte. The website connects a diverse array of actors, including travel agencies in Ghana and Nigeria, diaspora brokers in Moscow, and associates linked to a Kremlin-backed military organization and Wagner Group successor to Africa Corps.
Intelligence reports describe cooperation between employers and officials in law enforcement, immigration and labor organizations. Investigation of local media memory bribery networks at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport involving airport staff, police, and immigration officials who are alleged to have knowingly facilitated departures, often in exchange for bribes. As investigations increased, recruitment coordinators directed recruits to land through neighboring countries before flights north.
Embassy of Russia in Nairobi he said in February that Russian authorities “have never engaged in the illegal ‘recruitment’ of Kenyans” and that foreign nationals can voluntarily register if they are in Russia legally.
However, reports of African citizens fighting for Russia have also emerged in the country Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Ugandaand Botswanaand in November, Ukrainian Minister Andrii Sybiha said that people from at least 36 African countries had been identified among those fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
The population is also increasing. French Institute of International Relations estimated in December that 50 Burkinabé and 150 Cameroonian recruits had been killed, although these figures are difficult to verify, and official confirmation remains scant. In April, the Cameroonian government he said 16 of its citizens had been killed while fighting for Russia in Ukraine – the first time it acknowledged the involvement of its citizens in that war.
Governments across Africa have responded equally to these reports. South African Government he said in February that it had worked with Moscow to secure the release of 17 civilians from contracts with Russian military units and facilitate their return home. In December, the government of Botswana he said two young men had been misled into joining the Russian army and that it was following “diplomatic channels” to ascertain their status and facilitate their return. There has been no update since.
Elsewhere, governments have been more silent, even in countries like Nigeria, where employers have been identified. “Some African governments don’t want to rock the boat,” Bax said. “It’s easy to turn a blind eye.”
Governments may be reluctant to act more forcefully due to greater dependence Russian corn, fertilizerand military cooperation in parts of the continent. Other governments lack the institutional and technical capacity to track citizens abroad. In some cases, leaders may simply be avoiding focusing on a problem they cannot solve.
This indifference has pushed some people to seek help elsewhere. Ojiro said he received calls in recent months from recruiters from Uganda, South Sudan, and Nigeria who were in Russia or sent to Ukraine. “They are reaching out because their governments are not responding,” he said. “They see that in Kenya, at least someone is listening.”
Kenya has taken a more aggressive approach to dealing with the recruitment of its citizens into the Russian war, in part due to its civil society and media sector. Investigation information, picture of the wounded, and ascend internal opinion they have put pressure on Kenyan officials. Time parliamentary debates in November, a member of parliament read the names of five Kenyans allegedly fighting in Ukraine and pressed government officials about the steps taken to bring them home.
Kenyan officials have discussed the issue with Moscow and Kyiv. In a conversation with the Russian envoy in February, Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya’s secretary general for foreign affairs, called to “unfettered consular access” to Kenyan citizens. Besides, he also met with the ambassador of Ukraine discuss possible ways to bring them home.
The Kenyan government has also taken action against domestic recruitment networks through arrests, asset freezes, and travel restrictions on suspected recruiters. At the end of February, Kenyan spies to be arrested suspected trafficker Festus Arasa Omwamba, claiming that he is believed to be “the main character in the largest human trafficking syndicate” that sent dozens of young people to Russia under false pretenses.
Still, recruitment networks are global and rapidly changing—and governments have few tools to disrupt recruitment once recruits enter a foreign military system. Kenyan the law already prohibits it citizens from enlisting or enlisting in a foreign army without permission from the president of Kenya. The government has said that Kenyans enlisted to fight for Russia in the war against Ukraine will be to be pardoned when they return home.
Bax advised increased scrutiny of recruitment agencies and the visa process, especially where consular supervision is weak. But even with strict corporate controls and travel controls, he said, “it will be very difficult to stop this behavior completely.”
Ojiro, meanwhile, advocated immediate and direct government cooperation with Kyiv to secure the return of Kenyans held in Ukraine as prisoners of war.
For those who do to return, governments must establish programs to reintegrate ex-combatants and provide them with psychological care. According to Kenyan National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, Kenyan investigators plan to do so log information from returnees struggling with psychological trauma. Efforts appear to focus primarily on documenting recruitment networks and gathering intelligence rather than providing structured rehabilitation or mental health support.
Ojiro regularly talks to relatives of those who have left who are trying to get their sons back or just looking for proof of death. “Some of them just want closure,” Ojiro said.
Mogesa’s family has contacted government officials through local officials, hoping they can secure the return of Clinton’s body. A few weeks later, the process remains stuck.
“We’re still waiting,” Vincent said. “We hope the government can help us bring his body home for burial.”
