Photo- Festus Omwamba at the Kahawa Law Courts in Kiambu, Kenya on February 26, 2026. © Brian Inganga, AP
Police in Kenya have arrested a man named in the alleged scheme that duped Kenyans with promises of skilled work in Russia, only for them to end up on the front lines of the fighting in Ukraine.
Festus Omwamba was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking in the northern Kenyan town of Moyale, near the border with Ethiopia, and charged Thursday in an antiterror court in the capital, Nairobi, with specific charges of trafficking 25 Kenyans to Russia last year. Police spokesperson Michael Muchiri said Omwamba was fleeing after returning from Russia.
Omwamba, who was identified by three Kenyan recruits who spoke to The Associated Press, had gone missing after families started protesting the disappearances and deaths of their relatives in the war in Ukraine.
The Kenyan government last week said more than 1,000 Kenyans were recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine and that at least 89 Kenyans were still on the front line, 39 were hospitalized, 28 were missing in action, and others had returned home. At least one person was confirmed dead
An intelligence report presented to Kenya’s parliament by the majority leader, Kimani Ichung’wah, said Kenyan and Russian government officials colluded with rogue job recruitment agencies to lure Kenyans to the front lines.
The Russian embassy in Nairobi denied the allegations, saying in a statement last Thursday that it never issued visas to anyone intending to travel to Russia to fight in Ukraine. It added: “The Russian Federation does not preclude citizens of foreign countries from voluntarily enlisting in the armed forces.”
Kenya’s Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi on Feb. 9 told the AP that he would travel to Russia for what he called a “diplomatic approach to rein in any dubious entities that are taking advantage of anyone in this misadventure”.
Mudavadi added that efforts to secure the release of Kenyans in Ukrainian prisons and repatriate those in Russia were ongoing.
“You recall that even at the highest level, the president made an appeal that if indeed there are Kenyans who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law, the appeal was made to the Ukrainian government to look at how they can be processed and brought back,” the minister explained.
Omwamba’s arrest is a major development in the government’s push to stop the recruitment of Kenyans to fight in Ukraine.
A recruit who escaped from the front line and sought refuge at the Kenyan Embassy in Russia, and was later processed for return home, John Kamau, told the AP he met Omwamba at a house in Nairobi where fellow recruits awaiting travel to Russia were kept.
Another recruit, who requested anonymity for fear of being tracked down by Russians, said Omwamba avoided contacting the recruits by text message and would instead call them or meet them in person.
The recruit had signed up after being told he would get a plumbing job in Russia, but on arrival, his passport was taken away and he was taken to a military camp for a few days before being deployed to the front line.
All recruits said Omwamba oversaw their tourist visa applications and ticket purchases, and two weeks after the first contact, they received visas and traveled to Russia.
The war on Ukraine
It’s Europe’s biggest war since World War II. It’s also Russia’s deadliest war since that conflict. And it has reshaped the global economy — with Moscow facing the most sanctions that any country has ever encountered.
Russia’s war on Ukraine completed four years on February 24
Casualty numbers — fatalities and those injured and possibly incapacitated — vary widely, with Russia and Ukraine both presenting figures that amplify the losses of their enemies and downplay their own losses.
Still, their contrasting numbers offer a sense of the scale of death and devastation.
Russia’s war in Ukraine is estimated to have caused roughly two million military casualties in all.
Ukraine’s General Staff estimated that some 418,000 Russian troops were killed or wounded last year, bringing total Russian casualties for the war to just over 1.25 million.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) last month agreed, estimating that Russia had suffered 1.2 million casualties, including at least 325,000 deaths, from the beginning of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022 until December 2025. Ukraine estimated an additional 31,680 Russian casualties in January 2026.
“These numbers are extraordinary. No major power has suffered anywhere near these numbers of casualties or fatalities in any war since World War II,” said the CSIS in its report.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this month said 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the entire war.
The CSIS estimated Ukraine had suffered up to 600,000 casualties, with as many as 140,000 deaths.
Ukraine believes Russian mortality rates on the front lines are rising to levels that cannot be sustained by the current method of voluntary recruitment.
“In December, 35,000 occupiers were eliminated – and this has been confirmed with video footage,” Zelenskyy said in early January, comparing this to 30,000 deaths in November, and 26,000 in October.
The CSIS agrees that Russian casualties have been rising throughout the war.
“Why are Russian casualties and fatalities so high?” the CSIS asked. “There are several possible explanations, such as Russia’s failure to effectively conduct combined arms and joint warfare, poor tactics and training, corruption, low morale, and Ukraine’s effective defence-in-depth strategy in a war that favors the defense.”
Ukraine has additionally suffered significant civilian deaths.
The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) believes 15,168 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and 41,534 wounded during four years of full-scale war.
It also believes the war is becoming more dangerous for civilians, with 2025 the deadliest year so far.
The open-source project Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) said that at least 2,919 Ukrainian civilians had been killed and 17,775 injured in 2025, mostly from Russian drone strikes in Ukraine but also from activities in Russian-occupied areas. The figures represented an increase from 2024.
In addition to military and civilian casualties, Ukraine has lost about a quarter of its pre-war population of 42 million.
Some five million people were living under Russian occupation, estimated the government in 2023.
Another 5.9 million Ukrainians have left the country, 5.4 million of them for Europe, estimates the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Ukraine says thousands of children were abducted from occupied territories to be raised in Russia and re-educated as Russians. The Yale School of Medicine estimates there are more than 19,000 abductees. Despite persistent pleas, Ukraine says, only 1,238 have been returned.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
