The announcement was made by Musalia Mudavadi, Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, during a joint press conference in Moscow alongside Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister.
“The president has conversed with us on the issue of the welfare of Kenyans who are in Russia and more specifically those who are involved in the special operation,” Mudavadi said.
“And I want to make it clear that we have now agreed that Kenyans shall not be enlisted through the Russian Ministry of Defence — they will no longer be eligible to be enlisted,” he added. “There will be no further enlisting.”
Kenyan officials say the decision follows intelligence findings that more than 1,000 Kenyan citizens had already been drawn into recruitment channels linked to the war.
Mudavadi added that Kenya would organise consular assistance for citizens currently in Russia through formal diplomatic channels.
“We do not want for any reason our partnership with Russia to be defined through the lenses of the special operation agenda only,” he said. “The relationship between Kenya and Russia is much broader than that.”
African recruits caught up in the Ukraine war
Kenya is not the only African country to confront the issue of its citizens being drawn into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Some African governments have launched investigations or diplomatic efforts after learning their citizens had been deployed to the battlefield. In certain cases, recruits reportedly travelled to Russia expecting civilian jobs but were later enlisted into military units.
Kenya’s latest agreement with Moscow reflects growing efforts by African governments to prevent their citizens from becoming involved in the conflict while maintaining broader diplomatic and economic relations with both sides.
