The government says at least 354 Kenyans are still unaccounted for after travelling to Russia and joining the war against Ukraine. Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi gave the figure when he appeared before a joint Senate committee on Labour and Defence on Thursday, October 8, 2026. He also told senators that 62 Kenyans have so far been brought back home, and the government is still working to trace those whose whereabouts are not known.
The petitioners who appeared before the same committee did not agree with the government's numbers. They argued that 841 Kenyans are still missing, which is more than double what Mudavadi reported. The gap between the two figures is one of the big questions the senators will need to sort out.
Mudavadi explained why the missing Kenyans are listed as "missing in action." According to him, the government cannot confirm whether these people are dead or alive. If the government declared them dead, it would be expected to produce a body, and there is no such record. So for now, they stay on the list as missing until their fate is verified.
He admitted that the search is hard, partly because some Kenyans left the country without telling their families or the government where they were heading. He said the government is essentially chasing after events that have already happened, but he insisted these are still Kenyan citizens and the state has a duty to look for them.
On the question of rescue, Mudavadi was frank. Kenya does not have the military capacity to send its soldiers into a war zone in Russia or Ukraine, so the only real option is diplomacy. He said the government is talking to both Russian and Ukrainian authorities to secure the release of Kenyans who were captured during the fighting. The government is also looking at pushing for them to be included in prisoner exchange deals between the two countries. He did not say how soon any of this would happen.
Mudavadi also made it clear that the contracts Kenyans signed to join the Russian military were private deals between the individuals and the companies or people in Russia. The Kenyan government was not part of those agreements. That means the state has limited power to step in on the terms of those contracts.
Money is another problem. Mudavadi said there is currently no dedicated government fund for rescuing and bringing back Kenyans caught up in foreign conflicts. A proposed law would create a welfare fund for such cases, but it still needs to be approved by Parliament. He said that for now, Parliament has not set aside any money in the budget for this kind of work.
He also reminded the committee that Section 58 of the Penal Code makes it a crime to join the armed forces of a foreign country without the President's consent. However, he said the government's main focus is bringing people home safely, not chasing them through the courts for their recruitment.
The Senate committee is currently looking at a petition about Kenyans recruited into the Russian military, as well as those being held in Ukrainian prisons. Many families are waiting for answers, and the committee's work will be closely followed by Kenyans back home.
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