Kenyan who escaped Russia nurses war injuries, trauma

A man looks at a burned car in an area hit by an air attack in a residential neighborhood in Zaporizhzhia on January 28, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [AFP]

At 28 years old, he should have been building his future.

Instead, the young man returned home quietly, injured, traumatised and unwilling to speak much about what he had seen. He doesn't even want his name published.

His journey reveals the painful cost of a shadowy pipeline that has drawn young Kenyans into Russia’s war against Ukraine.

According to the father, his first-born son, was recruited in July last year but kept the family in the dark about the process. 

"He did not want to disclose further information. I did not know agents who recruited him," Peter Kariuki told The Standard.

"After he left, he was communicating with a strange number on WhatsApp and not calling," he said. The father revealed his worry when he saw his son, who had been promised a driver's job, in "strange uniform".

He would later inform his family that he joined the Russian army and was training.

But upon completion of the training, communication was almost impossible. The frontlines were deep in contested areas where mobile network was poor.

His family members in Nakuru and Eldoret were left in the dark, unsure whether their loved one was still alive.

The father said around mid-August last year, he learned that his son had been injured. Exactly how it happened remains unclear. 

According to his family, he spent days — possibly weeks — moving through bush terrain while injured, surviving on painkillers and basic supplies.

He was eventually taken to a medical facility near the Russian border with Ukraine for first aid. It was there, for the first time since he joined the frontline, that communication resumed. He was later transferred to an advanced medical facility in St Petersburg. 

It is from this facility that he would successfully hatch an escape plan back to Kenya. 

During this recuperating period, he told the father, the injured recruits were reportedly given limited freedom of movement. And that brief window of freedom became his chance.

"Using money he had earned within the first three months, he took a taxi to the Kenyan embassy," Kariuki said. “The moment he reached the embassy, he was assisted." 

"By early December, he was back—first in Nairobi, trying to process what had happened and how to be repatriated fully, and then finally home with his family."

The father said the man was "getting some money directly" which he used to travel back. 

But coming home did not mean the ordeal was over. Beyond suffering a broken hand, there are psychological scars, with the mother, who he lives with, admitting that "things are not okay".   

The father said the experience has left him deeply disturbed, with a lot of anger and anxiety about many unanswered questions.

“He is not talking a lot,” he said. “We are giving him time to heal. Unless he volunteers information, we do not ask much.”

The family also associates his silence with intimidation some of the survivors receive from the rogue agents. 

"Let the government come out clearly. There is fear that they will be victimised if they speak," said Kariuki. 

The family also has to bear the high cost medical care and counselling services, even as they try to pursue his unpaid wages.

The story of Kariuki son mirrors numerous others on those lured into the human-trafficking syndicate.

"According to my son, there are more than 500 Kenyans fighting in the frontline for Russia in its war with Ukraine," he said. 

In November last year, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said some 200 Kenyans were known to be fighting for Russia and acknowledged that recruitment networks were still active.

This followed the news that a young Kenyan athlete had been captured in Ukraine, saying he had been tricked into joining the Russian army.

As Kenya grapples with growing reports of its citizens being illegally recruited into foreign conflicts, these stories stands as a stark warning. Behind promises of prime opportunity lie tragedies.