Lured by lucrative job offers but sent to the front line

David Kuloba’s mother warned him about going to Russia after he accepted a job advertised as a security guard by a recruitment agency in Kenya.

The family, who lives in Kibera, a crowded informal settlement of Kenya’s capital, was initially excited when he told them he had found work abroad; This felt like a rare opportunity.

The 22-year-old man was doing casual work in Nairobi, from selling peanuts to construction work, and had long hoped to find work in the Gulf.

However, when his mother asked him which country he would go to, her answer shocked him.

“He showed me his phone and said, ‘Look, this is Russia,'” Susan Kuloba told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

“I told him: ‘Don’t you see what they’re showing about Russia on TV? That’s never a good thing,'” he recalled.

But his son insisted the offer was genuine and said he had been promised more than $7,000 (£5,250) on arrival; This was a life-changing amount for a young man without a stable income.

Despite his protests, he left for Russia in August without stating the exact date of departure.

She was shocked when he later contacted her and told her he had arrived and sent a photo of her in full combat uniform.

“He told me: ‘Mom, the job we were told to do has changed, but even that’s not bad,'” she said.

His son said he and some other Kenyan men were given two weeks of combat training and headed to the war zone in Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022.

Within days he was told that he and others had been ambushed in an area controlled by Russian forces. She begged him to come home.

“I said: ‘David, please leave there.’ He said to me: ‘How can I leave? I signed a contract. Give me at least a year.’

“Then I got the message I was afraid of,” Ms. Kuloba said.

It was October 4th. David had sent him a voice note saying he was about to go to war and asking him to get his Russian military ID and contract details, written in Russian, in case he didn’t survive.

He insisted that he take the documents to the Russian embassy in case anything happened to him.

That was the last time she heard from him.

Confused and horrified, she soon sought help from her son’s friend, who told her she had heard that David had died.

“I asked your friend: ‘How do you know?’ “Let me give you the number of the agent who welcomed us in Russia,” he said.

Ms. Kuloba texted the number; At first the answers came in Russian. When he introduced himself, the person told him in English that David was lost and that he was afraid he would die.

“I’m sorry to tell you this about your son,” the agent said.

He asked for a photo of his body or confirmation that David was in the morgue. None came.

The contact told him that he was “too far away” and suggested that he go to Russia himself or send another relative; He said the family couldn’t afford to do this.

The same person later told her that she was “entitled to compensation” for her son’s death, but again did not provide any documentation.

Ms. Kuloba said she had been unable to obtain official confirmation about David from Russian authorities. When he visited the Russian embassy in Nairobi, officials there told him they “did not engage with the military.”

He has no idea what to do next and goes crazy with sadness: “How do we start? Because we don’t know anything. He was my first child. I trusted him.”

The father of another Kenyan man who went to work in Russia told the BBC that he was recruited with the understanding that he would be a driver and that he had nothing to do with the armed struggle.

The young man was injured in Ukraine and has been too traumatized to speak since returning home two weeks ago. The BBC agreed not to identify him to protect his health.

His father learned that his son had gone to Russia only after receiving news that he was injured.

“He had hinted that people would leave, so I discouraged him,” the father told the BBC. “I was following the war from the beginning. I was not comfortable.”

He said agents promised about $1,500 a month — “good money” for a qualified driver in Kenya.

His son later told him that, like David Kuloba, he had only trained for two weeks before being sent to the battlefield.

The father said, “He said he was injured in the bush and could not find treatment for 5 days. He was using painkillers.”

He was eventually taken to the border where he was given first aid and later taken to St. He was transferred to Petersburg.

The father said he saw “the scattered corpses of other fighters” and described how many others like him had signed one-year contracts without fully understanding the terms.

Last month, Kenya’s foreign minister says nearly 200 Kenyans are known to be fighting for Russia and acknowledged that recruitment networks were still active.

This follows a news report in September: Young Kenyan athlete was caught in UkraineHe said he was tricked into joining the Russian army.

The government says many recruitment agencies are currently under investigation and some licenses have already been suspended.

Sylvanus Osoro, Kenya’s parliamentary majority leader, told the BBC: “Some institutions are luring young people with promises of large payments. The government is pursuing institutions linked to this fraud.”

He disclosed that out of about 130 registered recruitment agencies in Kenya, about five have been flagged, three have already been suspended and two others are under investigation.

Osoro said Parliament’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee had taken up the matter and the agencies summoned were expected to outline how they recruited young people, what information they provided and how contracts were offered.

But unexpectedly, families with relatives fighting on behalf of Russian forces said they felt helpless and criticized the government for its slow response.

On the question of what is being done regarding the repatriation of those assigned to combat duties, Osoro said that the process should follow diplomatic channels.

“A contract is signed willingly, even if they don’t realize it,” he said. “This can only be resolved diplomatically. These agreements are being made.”

He said all known cases had been “mapped” and authorities had verified the conditions under which contracts were signed. But he refused to confirm how many Kenyans may have died.

“I would not give such a report. This is not for me,” he said. “What I can say is that the work continues.”

Osoro said new legislation was being drafted to tighten controls on recruitment agencies, including stricter scrutiny before licenses are issued and clearer distinctions between job categories.

The problem extends beyond Kenya. Officials in many African countries reported that young people were approached with lucrative job offers in Russia, which then led to military recruitment.

Many families are afraid to speak publicly about their relatives abroad because they fear they will be stigmatized or the legal consequences will be uncertain.

The allegation that former President Jacob Zuma’s daughter was involved in the recruitment process in South Africa has turned into a huge scandal. He denies any wrongdoing.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that anyone fighting on Russia’s behalf would be treated as an enemy combatant and that the only safe way out was to surrender and be treated as a prisoner of war.

Ms. Kuloba still has no official confirmation of her son’s fate. If he dies, he wants his body to be sent to his country.

“I just feel heartbroken,” he said. “He wanted to help us. He thought he would go to a better job.”

Additional reporting from BBC Newsday correspondent Maureen Nyukuri in Nairobi