Dead or alive? Mystery deepens over Kenyan feared dead in Ukraine as state says he is alive

Martin Macharia (left) and Peter Kimemia in Russia. [Courtesy]

The family of the first Kenyan that Ukraine reported killed on the Russian war front has been receiving conflicting information from the state about the matter.

The family says Martin Mburu Macharia, a former matatu driver, was killed in November 2025. His wife Grace Gathoni and children saw pictures of his body that were shared by the Ukrainian authorities.  He was killed during an operation in Ukrainian territory being claimed by Russia.

However, responses from the State Department of Diaspora Affairs have, on two occasions, claimed that he is alive, ‘and in camp’ locked up on the frontline in Ukraine.

 

“When I went to the State Department of Diaspora Affairs in April, they told me that they did not have information about Macharia,” Gathoni told The Standard last week

 “I went again at the beginning of this month (July) and officials told me that he was in the camp but has to serve his contract and finish before he is released.” she added.

Gathoni said the department has told her the same information on three different occasions

“Two different officials have given me that message. Felix told me that he is now the one handling my case,” she said.

The Standard established that Felix is an awarded Foreign Service Official at the State Department of Aiaspora Affairs who was behind the high-risk Myanmar diaspora evacuation where over 350 Kenyans were freed following regional military crackdowns, with 119 successfully repatriated last year.

He was conferred with the Order of the Grand warrior of Kenya during the 2025 Jamhuri Day celebrations.

It was not the first time for Gathoni to receive such disturbing news, early in the year while looking for answers after The Standard broke the news of the death of her husband she managed to contact a Russian national that the family knew identified as Alex. She described the man as an agent her husband had been dealing with since his recruitment into the Russian army. Alex told her that Macharia was alive but no one could reach him because he was engaged on the frontline.

“He has to serve his entire contract before we release him,” read the WhatsApp post that Gathoni received from the man. “That was in January. “

In early February Gathoni received a letter from the Russian embassy in Nairobi addressed to her lawyer Christopher Wainaina of Chacha and Company advocates. The letter acknowledged Macharia having signed a contract to join the Russian Army and described him as missing in action since December 1, 2025.

“The Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Kenya hereby communicates that the citizen of Kenya Mburu Martin Macharia, born 28/08/1987, signed the contract for serving in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on 25/10/2025” The letter says and adds  “On 01/12/2025 he was declared missing in action.”

The letter was signed by Alexey Zamilatskiy, Head of the consular section.

In late November 2025, The Standard received pictures of the body, a copy of his passport and a boarding pass, documents that were in his possession during his short stint in the Russian army. The pictures were shared with his family which confirmed identity.

Recruited in Nairobi in October 2025, Macharia landed in Russia in late October and was reportedly coerced into signing a contract written in Russian on October 25. He came to know the details of the contract after he was shipped into a Russian military camp and told he had joined the army.  He was reportedly killed on the frontline in Ukraine on November 27, 2025, 32 days after his arrival as Ukrainian troops engaged Russian frontline forces in Donetsk-Lyman, a city within the Donbass region still under Ukrainian control.

Macharia had been dispatched to the frontline despite his protestations through letters he sent to Kenya’s mission in Moscow. Copies of the letters were shared through WhatsApp to his sister Salome Macharia back at home during the rare moments that he accessed his phone and network after field operations.

He was among a team of fresh recruits from Africa in October 2025. Among the documents shared by Ukrainian authorities after his death included pictures and passports belonging to a Nigerian recruit, Stephen Udoka, who was killed alongside him.  His passport, a copy of which The Standard accessed, indicated that he was 37 years old -two years younger than Macharia, who was 39.

Details shared by our sources in Kyiv's security circles included boarding passes revealing that Macharia left Nairobi aboard AirArabia on October 21, 2025, at 1350 hours en route to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, for a connecting flight to Moscow. That was six days before The Standard, on October 27, 2025, exposed the misfortune befalling Kenyans getting duped by unscrupulous agencies operating in Nairobi promising them jobs in Russia.

Gathoni, at a meeting in mid-July with Diaspora Affairs Principal Secretary Roselyn Njogu, asked for clarity in reports about her missing husband. She told the department’s officials that Russian authorities had informed her through her lawyer that Macharia was Missing in Action a month after seeing pictures of his body.

The PS reiterated her earlier stand, which she had stated in a statement to The Standard, that her department had been seeking answers from a foreign government through diplomatic channels and will avail information whenever it comes.

The name of Macharia is also missing on a list published by Ukrainian Authorities of 485 Africans said to have been killed while fighting for Russia in the ongoing war. The over 400 are spread across Africa with Cameroon leading other African countries in losing the largest number of its sons to Russia’s war. The country has lost 104 men. Ghana takes the second position with 85 individuals. Egypt is third with 81 men killed, and Kenya lost 59.

The list is available on a new website launched by the Ukrainian Department of Defence in May, titled Stop Russian Recruiters, which documents and shares information on predatory recruitment practices of the Russian Armed Forces.

There is currently no official diplomatic communication confirming the demise of Martin Macharia, said the Diaspora Affairs department in its response to questions from The Standard. The department, however, owned up to the fact that Macharia’s family had notified it of reports of his death on the frontline.

“Consequently, the Department initiated a formal verification protocol through the Embassy of the Republic of Kenya in Moscow,” Said the letter in part adding.

“The Kenya Embassy in Moscow has since written to the Russian authorities requesting an official status update on Mr. Macharia, and is awaiting feedback”

The department promised that the family will be updated immediately upon receipt of officially verified information through the appropriate diplomatic channels.