Ukraine confirms death of Kenyan fighting for Russian army -Here’s all we know

Ukrainian authorities have confirmed the death of a Kenyan in its ongoing war with Russia.

According to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, Clinton Nyapara Mogesa was recruited to join the war for Russia, leaving his job in Qatar.

Like the case of others that have been highlighted in the media in the recent past, he was taken through a short training.

Afterwards, he was handed weapons and unform and taken to the frontline to face Ukranian forces.

Mogesa lost his life in battle, with Ukranian authorities confirming that his body was recovered “at one of the positions of Russian forces.”

READ: Kenyan athlete tricked into joining Russian army, captured. Now he's pleading to go home

The 28-year-old was killed during a "meat assault" in Donetsk.

His death comes at a time when Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi is planning a diplomatic visit to Russia as part of efforts to ensure Kenyan citizens do not fall into dangerous traps linked to the conflict.

“I will soon be making an official visit to Russia so that we can engage their government and discuss these issues, so that Kenyans do not fall into traps,” Mudavadi said on Friday, January 30 in an interview with Western Kenya radio stations.

In September last year, Evans, a 16-year athletics veteran and father of one lifted the lid on how recruiters working for Russia lured him to join the war only to end up being captured by Ukranian forces.

His accounted offered a glimpse into how foreigners are lured into the trap with promises of a better life and then taken to the frontline with little training.

Evans said that he travelled to Russia as a tourist and spent two weeks sightseeing before he was tricked into joining the army a day before his scheduled return to Nairobi. 

His host requested him to stay for longer and when Evans responded that his visa was expiring soon, the host presented him with papers claiming that they were for a job that would see his visa extended.

He signed the documents which were written  in Russian, believing that he was inking a deal for a genuine job, only to later learn that he had signed up for the Russian army.

“I didn’t know it was military work. So he told me to sign here, sign there. After I signed, he took my passport and my phone and said he would return them,” Evans said.

He was then taken by unknown people and driven for about seven hours to a location that turned out to be a military training camp, marking another chapter in his ordeal.

It is here that he learnt that the documents he signed earlier were actually a military contract and he was at the military base for a short training before going to the frontline with no option for quitting.

“One week of training. That’s all they gave me. They gave me this. They called it an automatic rifle,” he recalled.

A short training that barely lasted a week transformed him into a soldier followed by deployment to combat operations.