More than 1,000 Kenyans lured to fight for Russia in Ukraine war, report says

Source: The Guardian

More than 1,000 Kenyans lured to fight for Russia in Ukraine war, report says

Intelligence findings read to parliament say ‘rogue’ agencies and individuals recruiting Kenyan nationals to frontline

Carlos Mureithi in Nairobi and Rachel Savage in Johannesburg
Thu 19 Feb 2026 14.39 GMT
First published on Thu 19 Feb 2026 13.01 GMT

More than 1,000 Kenyans have been lured to fight for Russia in its war with Ukraine, according to an intelligence report to the Kenyan parliament that highlights the scale of a Russian operation taking African men to the frontline.

The majority leader of Kenya’s national assembly, Kimani Ichung’wah, said “rogue recruitment agencies and individuals in Kenya” were continuing to send Kenyan nationals to fight in the conflict, as he read MPs the summary of an investigation by Kenya’s National Intelligence Service.

The figure of more than 1,000 individuals is a significant increase on the number given in a statement by Kenya’s foreign affairs ministry in November, which said that more than 200 Kenyans had travelled to fight in the war.

A growing number of people from African countries – including Kenya, Uganda and South Africa – and elsewhere have been lured to the frontline as Russia seeks manpower to sustain its invasion. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in November that more than 1,400 people from 36 African countries were fighting for Russia in Ukraine. Many are being held by Ukraine as prisoners of war.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/19/kenyan-soldiers-russia-ukraine-war-intelligence-report