Kenya to confront Russia over ‘unacceptable’ use of its nationals in combat

“Families that we’ve spoken to say they have not been able to bury their loved ones because their bodies are still on the other end,” Kenya’s foreign minister said.

“It is difficult because, remember, it depends on where the body has been found. There some have been found in Ukraine – we are also working with the government of Ukraine to try and get the remains of those people repatriated.”

Pressure has been mounting on the Kenyan government to act after the recent discovery of more bodies of citizens who had been recruited to fight for Russian armed forces.

Some of the affected families have told the BBC that they lay the blame squarely on Kenya’s government, for failing to regulate and criminalise clandestine recruitment agencies.

But the Kenyan foreign minister rejects this.

“You cannot blame the government on this,” Mudavadi told the BBC. “Where there are illegal recruitment agencies, we have scrapped them and we continue to scrap them.”

Ukrainian intelligence assessment estimates that more than 1,400 people from 36 countries in Africa have been recruited to fight for Russia. Ukraine has also previously come in for criticism for trying to recruit foreign nationals, including Africans, to fight on its side.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that anyone fighting for Russia will be treated as an enemy combatant, and that the only safe route out is to surrender and be treated as a prisoner of war.