For Milcah Wangila, the silence is deafening. It has been nearly five months since her phone last rang with the voice of her husband, Oscar Khagola. He had traveled to Russia in mid-2025, buoyed by the promise of a job that would secure his family’s future. Instead, he has vanished into the geopolitical fog of Eastern Europe, leaving a wife in Nairobi grappling with a nightmare that is becoming terrifyingly common for Kenyan families.

The disappearance of Khagola is not an isolated tragedy; it is a piercing signal of a broader crisis. He is among a growing number of Kenyans who, driven by economic desperation at home, have fallen prey to recruitment syndicates promising lucrative work in Russia, only to find themselves allegedly funneled toward the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.

The Last Promise

The couple’s final conversation on July 16 was brief but hopeful. Khagola, who had left Kenya with high spirits, told his wife he was struggling with communication but had a plan.

“We talked around July 16, and after that, his calls stopped going through,” Wangila recounted, her voice heavy with the exhaustion of a five-month vigil. “In our last conversation, he told me he was going to buy a Russian SIM card so he could contact us more easily. He never called back.”

That promised call never came. Since that day, the digital lifeline has been severed. Wangila describes a life now defined by fear and the heartbreaking questions from their children, who cannot understand why their father has stopped calling.

The Moscow Trap

Khagola’s journey follows a disturbing pattern identified by security analysts and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Agents, often operating with impunity in Nairobi and other major towns, lure former servicemen and unemployed youth with promises of security jobs or general labor in Russia. The reality on the ground is often starkly different.

Wangila’s frustration is compounded by the opacity of the recruitment agents who facilitated her husband’s travel. Despite her frantic efforts to extract information, the agents have offered no concrete answers, a silence that suggests either negligence or complicity.

• The Lure: Promises of high salaries often exceeding $1,000 (approx. KES 130,000) per month.
• The Reality: Reports indicate many recruits are stripped of passports and coerced into military contracts.
• The Cost: Families often pay agents between KES 100,000 and KES 200,000 to facilitate the travel, taking loans they now cannot repay.

Government Under Pressure

The case has reignited calls for the Kenyan government to take a firmer diplomatic stance. While Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs Dr. Korir Sing’oei has previously acknowledged the rescue of Kenyans from the warfront, families like Wangila’s feel abandoned in the gray zone of diplomatic protocol.

Wangila is now bypassing the agents and appealing directly to the highest office in the land. “I want to plead with the President and the Principal Secretary in charge. I know they have the capability to help my family with this matter. We just want to know where our loved one is,” she said.

As the holiday season approaches, the absence of Oscar Khagola is a stark reminder of the human cost of the war in Ukraine—a cost now being paid in the living rooms of Nairobi.