A Kenyan mother is distraught after her only son vanished in Russia six months after leaving home for promised work as an electrical engineer.
Thirty‑five‑year‑old Francis Ndung’u Ndarua left Nairobi in late 2025 after paying an agent to secure a job abroad. He had not been heard from since October. His mother, Anne Ndarua, says she doesn’t know whether he is alive.
In December, videos began circulating online showing Francis in Russia urging others not to travel there for job offers. In the clips he warned many recruited Africans were being forced into military service, not given the civilian work that was promised.
Days later another video showed Francis in military uniform, visibly afraid and reportedly threatened with frontline deployment. These clips are the last known signs of his whereabouts.
Anne says she could not bring herself to watch the footage and now wants government help. She has publicly appealed to both Kenyan and Russian authorities to assist in finding her son and bringing him home.
Francis was unemployed before leaving Kenya and paid roughly $620 to an agent who promised legitimate employment in Russia. His family says he was informed soon after arrival that he would undergo military training and was deployed to fight in Ukraine shortly afterward.
His case reflects a wider pattern of Kenyans recruited under false pretences, facing coercion into combat roles far from home. Other families have reported similar disappearances and deaths after relatives left Kenya for supposed civilian jobs.
Officials have warned citizens against risky overseas job offers, but many young men continue to be caught up in schemes that end with them on foreign battlefields.
Anne now waits in painful uncertainty and hopes increased public attention will prompt action to locate Francis and others like him.
By Tuko