Promised work but sent to war


Family and friends held a memorial service for Charles Waithaka, who was killed in the Russia-Ukraine war, and whose body could not be recovered, in Nyeri, Kenya. — AP

THE scars on Victor’s forearm are a permanent reminder of the day a Ukrainian drone tore into him – after he was forcibly conscripted into the Russian army.

It was never his war. Like hundreds of other young Kenyans, he says he was lured to Russia with promises of a well-paid civilian job, only to be coerced into fighting in Ukraine. He is lucky to be alive.

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