Kenya | Migrant battalion

Credible and licensed agents

William Moige

Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Diaspora Affairs, Roseline Njogu, recently appealed to Kenyans [https://x.com/KBCChannel1/status/1909160173815341375] to verify every job opportunity they come across. “The National Employment Authority can inform you about credible and licensed agents,” Njogu was quoted as saying, adding, “We are still seeing Kenyans using travel agents and tour companies in an attempt to find jobs abroad; however, these are not licensed operators.”

The goal Njogu purported to embrace—proper control of foreign job recruitment channels—was certainly needed. In recent years, young Kenyan women seeking to improve their lives by migrating for domestic work in the Gulf States have been abused, and some have even died [https://www.zammagazine.com/investigations/1706-kenya-no-alternatives-to-hell]. Because of such reports, Kenya recently adopted rules that, the government said, would ensure that only “credible and licensed” agents could offer foreign job and fellowship opportunities to its citizens.

Government paid an agency to send youth to Russia

However, the resulting system does not seem to have done much to help Kenyan youth—ever more compelled to seek jobs abroad amid rising unemployment—gain a real sense of where they are headed, particularly with regard to Russia. Licensed recruitment agency Yumna has even been paid by the government itself [https://thekenyatimes.com/latest-kenya-times-news/kenya-starts-exporting-workers-to-russia-under-ksh115000-salary/] to send students there; Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua has seen them off personally [https://x.com/DrAlfredMutua/status/1938095843308916917?t=ltKpLqfzak88dFJ3gnIGOQ&s=19], and Kenya’s ambassador to Russia, Peter Mathuki, waxes lyrical (“I am impressed” https://www.facebook.com/enangueholding/posts/alabuga-start-exceeded-my-expectations-ambassador-extraordinary-and-plenipotenti/1172379221353747/) about the Alabuga Special Zone recruitment scheme.

Promising a better future

With such promoters, how can Kenya’s youth be blamed for thinking Russia provides the hope they seek, especially when social media is full of videos featuring accomplished women like Vyonna Rukono, speaking in glowing terms about the Alabuga Start programme that targets young women aged 18 to 22? “It has been an amazing experience,” Rukono says. “I would love to tell you more about it.”

For young Kenyans, who make up 35% of the population and face a dire lack of prospects to find meaningful work, this is a story of hope. According to a 2023 report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, full unemployment rose significantly in the last quarter of 2022, soon after President William Ruto took office, doubling from 5,2% to 10,4% in the last three months of the year. These figures rise to a shocking 67% when focusing on youth and excluding informal work such as hawking [https://www.fke-kenya.org/policy-issues/youth-employment]. Young Kenyans who want more out of life than simply eking out a subsistence are therefore an ideal audience for curated videos featuring Rukono and other Africans promising a better future in Russia.

Some may well even prefer being at Alabuga

Some may even prefer being at Alabuga, once there, to the situation they faced before leaving Kenya. According to another video, at least one Kenyan recruit remained committed to being there despite Alabuga’s, by all accounts, military-adjacent environment—even after a Ukrainian bombing of the site. “I came to work and study at Alabuga Polytech. (…) I am fine now,” says Macrene Achieng Otieno in the video [https://x.com/sezalabuga/status/1775457640060973300], looking angry and appalled at those responsible for the bombing that hit Alabuga on 2 April 2024. “Those who attacked our hostel today are real barbarians and deserve serious condemnation. In my opinion, they wanted to intimidate us. But I want to make it clear: they did not succeed. You will not scare me, because Alabuga is a strong place, and we will get through this.”

The bombing of the Alabuga site—causing damage to several buildings, including dormitory facilities housing workers [https://isis-online.org/isis-reports/assessment-of-the-april-2024-strike-on-alabuga-special-economic-zone]—on 2 April 2024 took place only weeks after the arrival of one of the first batches of Kenyan recruits, of which Achieng Otieno had likely been a part [https://x.com/sezalabuga/status/1771158254762049995].

Unanswered calls

No more videos or pictures featuring Achieng have been circulating since; besides her own, only Vyonna Rukono’s remain. We tried to contact Rukono through social media but found little to no information about her, and the available accounts are inactive. We couldn’t find Achieng either, nor were we able to establish contact with any Kenyans at the site.

A request to facilitate such contact, made to the enthusiastic Alabuga promoter and Kenyan ambassador to Moscow, Peter Mutuku Mathuki [https://www.facebook.com/enangueholding/posts/alabuga-start-exceeded-my-expectations-ambassador-extraordinary-and-plenipotenti/1172379221353747/],—contained in a letter that also asked whether the embassy was monitoring the safety and well-being of Kenyan recruits— went unanswered. Likewise, the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a letter inquiring whether it, if not Mathuki himself, was ensuring the well-being of Kenyan citizens on the site.

An “impressed” ambassador

Kenya’s ambassador to Russia, Peter Mathuki, was quoted in a May 2025 news update posted by the Alabuga channel on X [https://x.com/sezalabuga/status/1925436840414183439], as saying that he had visited the special economic zone, which had “exceeded his expectations.” “I had heard about Alabuga before, but it helped a lot to see this technological industrial park with my own eyes. I am impressed,” he added. According to the Russian embassy in Kenya (see comment below), Mathuki is “in constant contact” with the reported 14 Kenyan participants in the Alabuga programme. In July 2025, he was also a speaker at the Russian Cyber Hack Camp in Moscow [see here: https://x.com/russembkenya/status/1950597351749435593  and here https://x.com/KEMoscow254/status/1950924920168346052], congratulating participants as “our new defenders.”

According to a report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, around 400 Kenyan women aged between 18 and 22 have been issued passports to travel to Alabuga [https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Who-is-making-Russias-drones_-The-migrant-women-exploited-for-Russias-war-economy-GI-TOC-May-2025.v2.pdf,]. However, the report also found that, as of December 2024, only 14 Kenyans were employed at Alabuga, and two had returned home, according to the Immigration Department.

No warnings

Kenya’s government has, to date, issued no warnings to its youth regarding Alabuga or Russia’s PR—neither after the Ukrainian drone strike on the site, nor following shocking reports in October and November [https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drones-shahed-africans-11602ab837f0ff4635926d884b422185] that alerted the international community to the presence of an Iranian Shahed-136 attack drone factory at Alabuga, where several women from African countries were found working, including with hazardous chemicals. Nor has the government responded after reports of the general recruitment of African students and workers in Russia, including Kenyans, began appearing in global media [see here https://theins.ru/en/politics/276018, here https://www.dw.com/en/how-russia-is-recruiting-foreigners-to-fight-in-ukraine/a-70019040, and here. https://x.com/alaminkimathi/status/1932330457875816947].

“The Kenyan embassy sees a clear benefit”

While the Russian embassy in Kenya did not respond to our queries, it has previously published a statement criticising reports in the Kenyan media about Russia’s Alabuga recruitment operation, describing them as part of a “large-scale disinformation campaign” by the West. The embassy also stated that the Kenyan embassy in Moscow was “in constant contact with the Alabuga SEZ (Special Economic Zone) representatives,” and that “the Kenyan Embassy sees a clear benefit from the participation of young Kenyans in this program and proposes to expand enrolment. The embassy can give further details and arguments about their position independently.” Queries sent by our team to the Kenyan embassy in Moscow were left unanswered.

Instead, when in December 2024 the embassy of Russia in Nairobi announced a revision of its visa policy for Kenyan citizens, introducing an electronic visa system that eliminated the previous more lengthy application process and offered an affordable visa within five days, Kenya’s authorities started working with the Yumna Investment Company, a registered recruitment firm based in Nairobi, to advertise jobs for Kenyans in Russia. The government-funded Uwezo Fund, meant to create opportunities for women and people with disabilities (1), partly funded the company to organise a group deployment to Russia for around 50 workers, purportedly for work in a food packing factory [https://thekenyatimes.com/latest-kenya-times-news/kenya-starts-exporting-workers-to-russia-under-ksh115000-salary/] in an undisclosed location in June 2025. Several enquiries as to the location of the food factory from Kenya’s Labour Ministry were unsuccessful.

The Labour Minister embraced the Russia project

The endeavour was embraced by Labour Minister Alfred Mutua [https://x.com/DrAlfredMutua/status/1938095843308916917?t=ltKpLqfzak88dFJ3gnIGOQ&s=19], who, just a month earlier, had maintained that the Kenyan government had no programmes actively sending workers to Russia. However, his added remark—“but if one comes up, we will send people there”—heralded his own Russia project almost immediately thereafter. Mutua also enthusiastically praised the use of the Uwezo Fund for the trip, as condoned by President Ruto, saying: “It was touching to hear young Kenyans express how this opportunity gives them a new lease on life and how grateful they are to H.E. (His Excellency) President Ruto for this life-changing opportunity” [https://x.com/DrAlfredMutua/status/1938095902129803762].

The use of taxpayers’ money to fund a Russia-bound trip organised by a private company raises questions, particularly since—according to the Labour Ministry, headed by Mutua—there are currently no labour agreements in place to protect Kenyan workers in Russia.

Mutua has not responded to questions as to the whereabouts and well-being of the workers that were sent off to a country where—according to interviews held by our team with Africans currently residing in Russia—“army recruitment posters promising tens of thousands of dollars are all over.” Our formal letter to Mutua, which also asked about oversight mechanisms, the ministry’s coordination with recruitment agencies like Yumna Investment Company, transparency in contract terms, measures to protect Kenyan workers from potential exploitation or involvement in military-related roles, and the government’s official position on risks related to placements in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, sent several weeks before the publication deadline, was similarly left unanswered, as was a letter to Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, in charge of foreign and diaspora affairs, requesting clarity on the government’s policy regarding youth deployment abroad, particularly to Russia.

Commenting on the lack of information and the mixed messaging from Kenya’s government, Professor Peter Kagwanya, president of the Africa Policy Institute, said the country should “adopt clear, honest policies to protect its citizens.”

Locked doors

Like our approaches to the above-mentioned government entities, efforts to obtain a response from the Nairobi-based Yumna recruitment firm were also unsuccessful. The company did not respond to a detailed questionnaire seeking clarity on their role in recruitment, contract transparency, worker welfare, and allegations of exploitation. Neither did it answer phone calls. A physical visit to their stated office on University Way, Nairobi, revealed locked doors.

 Foreign recruitment may be seen as the best way out

The exodus of Kenyans to Russia may be partially encouraged by a smooth PR campaign featuring videos of accomplished and energetic women like Vyonna Rukono and Macrene Achieng. But our investigation shows a much deeper crisis at the root of the phenomenon: Kenyans are willing to work abroad despite unclear labour conditions, and even in the face of a very real threat of war.

A recent survey by Afrobarometer [https://www.afrobarometer.org/articles/international-migrants-day-almost-half-of-africans-have-considered-emigrating-afrobarometer-survey-shows/] showed that more than half of African citizens have considered emigrating. Among them, 49% said they would do so in search of better work opportunities, while 29% cited the desire to escape hardship and poverty. Choosing foreign recruitment, offered with the apparent support of one’s own government, may therefore appear to be the best ‘way out,’ particularly in light of the worldwide visa difficulties facing Africans.

Foreign exchange

However, the Kenyan government’s promotion of ‘jobs abroad’, even to risky destinations, points to an absence of plans to develop real opportunities for its youth and, worse, to a conscious policy of using citizens as a resource to bring in foreign exchange. Critics have already raised fears [https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/115078-gachagua-urges-kenyans-abroad-reject-cbk-diaspora-remittance-survey ] that the recent announcement of a survey of financial remittances to Kenya by migrant workers abroad—which accounted for almost 4 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2024, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics’ 2025 Economic Survey—may be followed by a tax. If this happens, it will be yet another cost borne by Kenyans working in foreign countries—including dangerous sectors in Russia—and by the families missing them.

• Job empowerment programmes often lump different sections of the population together in this way.