Kenyan nationals will be banned from fighting for Russia against Ukraine: according to a statement from Moscow
This is according to Reuters.
Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi stated that Moscow and Nairobi have agreed: Kenyan citizens will no longer fight on Russia’s side against Ukraine. He made this statement on 16 March following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.
According to Mudawadi, the parties discussed the welfare of Kenyans currently in Russia, and specifically those who had been involved in the so-called “special operation”. He emphasised that Kenyans would no longer be enlisted through the Russian Ministry of Defence and that “there will be no further recruitment”.
He also stated that consular services would be organised through the appropriate diplomatic channels for Kenyans requiring assistance.
Mudavadi added that Kenya does not want its partnership with Russia to be defined solely through the prism of the war against Ukraine. According to him, relations between Nairobi and Moscow are “much broader” than this issue.
Sergey Lavrov, for his part, stated that Kenyan citizens had voluntarily signed contracts to fight alongside the Russian army.
In February, Kenyan intelligence reported to parliamentarians that over 1,000 Kenyan citizens had been recruited to fight on Russia’s side. This is five times more than the country’s authorities had previously estimated.
Kenyan politicians had previously spoken of a network of corrupt officials who, they claimed, were colluding with groups linked to human trafficking and recruiting Kenyans to fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Officials in Nairobi stated that they wanted to put a stop to this practice.
