Kenya wants the African Union to take up Russia’s recruitment of Africans as the Moscow summit stays silent

NAIROBI — Kenya’s foreign minister, Musalia Mudavadi, says the African Union should take up Russia’s recruitment of Africans to fight in Ukraine. He also acknowledged that Nairobi does not know how many of its citizens have been drawn into the Russian army, The Africa Report reported from Moscow on Thursday. He is in the city with President William Ruto for the Russia–Africa summit, which ends today. He was last there in March, on a trip to stop the illegal recruitment of Kenyans.

The official figures are contested. According to numbers Mudavadi gave Parliament on 8 October, cited by The EastAfrican, 354 Kenyans are linked to the conflict. Of those, 84 are listed as killed or missing in action, 77 as on the front lines, 34 as in hospital and five as prisoners of war in Ukraine, while 62 have been repatriated. The Daily Nation reports that a further 38 are in military camps and 52 are in unknown or unclassified locations. The Journalists for Justice report The Death Contract, published in August, counted 873 Kenyan cases, the largest documented group of any African country, ahead of Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda.

Not on the published agenda

Ruto’s published programme in Moscow centred on trade and investment and made no explicit reference to the recruits, The Brief reported on Wednesday. EUobserver reported that Putin had been silent on Ruto’s request for Russian help to repatriate Kenyans, and that Nigerian and South African officials had also voiced concern about their citizens being recruited. The Kremlin has not publicly addressed the use of African fighters.

In a statement before the summit, Kenya’s embassy in Moscow said the government was raising “irregular recruitment, loss of life and the well-being of affected families” with Russia “through structured diplomatic channels”, The EastAfrican reported. The embassy did not say whether the issue would come up in Ruto’s formal meetings. Nairobi is also seeking a bilateral labour agreement that would set up regulated job routes to Russia and rule out recruitment into foreign armed formations.

Pressure from rights groups

In an open letter before the 28–29 October summit, Amnesty International’s African section directors urged leaders to raise the issue directly with Moscow. “For African leaders to remain silent on this issue would be a profound disservice to the people of their countries,” they wrote, saying the recruitment practices in many cases amount to trafficking, a crime under international law. Kenya has asked that its citizens held in Ukraine be treated as victims of trafficking, and says recruits were lured with false offers of civilian jobs.

AB24’s reading from Nairobi: asking the AU to take this on is an admission that bilateral talks have not settled the problem. The stop list ended new enlistment through Russia’s defence ministry, Kenya says, but it does not resolve the cases of those already under contract, the missing or the dead. An AU file would also bring in other affected states. Whether the issue reaches the AU Peace and Security Council, and whether the final summit documents mention it at all, is the next test.

Sources: The Africa Report, 29 Oct 2026; The EastAfrican, 28 Oct 2026; The Brief, 28 Oct 2026; EUobserver, 28 Oct 2026; Daily Nation.

— AB24 · Nairobi