Mutua refutes claims of involvement in recruiting Kenyans to Russia's war

Labour CS Alfred Mutua before the Committee on Appointments at the Mini Chambers on August 4, 2024. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

The government has not sent anyone to fight for Russia in Ukraine, was the terse response from Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua to questions around his name doing the rounds on social media and international online publications regarding illegal recruitment for Russia’s army in the country.

“All the people who went to Russia on my program were received personally by Kenya’s ambassador to Russia, who personally talked to them, prepared them for their employment in the new country, and visited them occasionally at their workplaces. Some of them are in communication with me”

The suave, eloquent politician -turned -bureaucrat whose mien reveals love for the finer things of life has been missing in his favourite corner, that is, the public limelight.

Whether as government spokesman or Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua, PhD was always a public servant who would not miss an opportunity to be seen and heard by his countrymen.

Before the country started to flood with cries about the tribulations that they are facing in jobs abroad, including some finding themselves serving on the Russian warfront in Ukraine, Mutua was in his element, enjoying the podium as he coined interesting catchwords in local idioms such as Kazi Majuu.

That was not empty rhetoric sourced from his work in film production. It was a bridge connecting Kenyans to jobs outside the country, he said himself in responding to questions from doubting Thomases.

An artistic gentleman, whichever way you look at him, Mutua’s skilful use of the spoken word that has given him a name in the country’s film industry, where his own production premiered on a local television station, was evident as he toured the country giving people promises for jobs overseas.

The first questions, however, were asked when his Kazi Majuu program started releasing groups said to have netted opportunities abroad. The Diaspora Committee of the National Assembly summoned him in June last year following claims that he had favoured his Ukambani backyard in his claimed noble mission for the country.

The issue of bogus recruitment agencies also cropped up, where he defended his ministry, saying it had listed 67 suspicious agencies issuing Kenyans with tourist visas, yet they weren’t registered to deal in employment issues.

“We have so far deregistered 23, which are today facing investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations”, Mutua told the committee.

On June 26, after his country errands had been reported in the press for a while, Mutua did a post on his X platform;

“Kenyans leaving for well-paying jobs in Russia”, the CS wrote “Yesterday, I met and saw off the first batch of 50 Kenyans who have obtained employment in Russia. Members of the group, from various counties, recounted how they had stayed at home without income for a long time and were grateful for this opportunity. They will be earning a take-home salary of Sh. 115,000 a month, with free accommodation and food provided, and will be working in a food packing factory”.

A picture of men dressed in white T-shirts surrounded a beaming Mutua, who was in a black suit, a broad grin playing on his face.

That picture has been the subject of an AFP story published on France 24’s website quoting a Kakamega family claiming that their son, a 38-year-old individual named Erastus Mundia Muyela, was in it.

The family is quoted as claiming that they had received information that he died in Ukraine while fighting for Russia. According to the story, Mundia left Kenya on a work program organised by the Labour Ministry, working with Russian authorities.

He died on the battlefield in Ukraine, and his family holds Labour Minister Alfred Mutua responsible, according to the AFP story.

 "Since I got the news, I hardly eat. I find myself in a different world," Josephine Ngoya, Mundia's mother, told AFP, holding a portrait of her son at his university graduation. "I feel like the Kenyan government and Alfred Mutua have betrayed us," she added, speaking from her home in the Kakamega region of western Kenya.

“The two individuals that you are talking about, I do not know them. We did not take a picture with them; they are not part of that group,” Mutua told The Standard, responding to questions via phone

“Each of the people who travelled to Russia when I took that picture, none of them ended up in Ukraine. They were all received by the ambassador, they were all driven to their workplaces, where they are working in different factories and they are well accounted for. All their families know where they are,” he said.

Mutua said there are proper government recruitment programs and fake recruitment that are organised in secret by unscrupulous agencies. 

“Other people conned Kenyans with promises of lucrative jobs. And the people who were conning Kenyans, some of them are not registered as companies. It was being done online, demanding money from Kenyans.  When they got to Russia, they were diverted to become fighters. I even managed to rescue a few who came to see me later by working with the embassy in Moscow. They came and told me how they were conned that they were going for jobs in Russia”.

Mutua said that the team of 50 are doing well in Russia. He said he has kept in touch and some have asked him to talk to their employers to extend their one-year contracts. He was, however, hesitant to share the list of names with The Standard for purposes of this story.

“They have built homes for their parents, they have...they have educated their brothers and sisters.... they are very very happy...” He said and added.

So, it is important to know that there are two different groups. The people fighting in Ukraine were taken there by con-artists- by other agencies, some registered, others not registered- who promised people and we were not aware as a government that this was happening until later”.

As Mutua responded to questions, his name and image remain on social media, including on YouTube videos that claim he has had links with Russia and is the man who has been inking deals where some Kenyans have ended up on the war front.  The claims have said the plan began when he was Foreign Affairs CS, where he would meet his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov

“No, I never discussed issues of labour mobility migration with Lavrov. I was not in that docket. When we met, we discussed issues of Foreign Affairs,” Mutua said.

Meanwhile, the government is conflicted on the total number of Kenyans trapped in Russia fighting for its army in its war against Ukraine. While Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi told Parliament that 291 Kenyans are on the front lines, a report by the National Intelligence Service tabled before the National Assembly in February said nearly 1000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight for Russia in the ongoing war.