Police in Kenya have charged a man accused of luring young men to Russia with job opportunities, only for them to end up fighting in Ukraine.
Festus Arasa Omwamba, head of recruitment agency Global Faces Human Resources, recruited 22 Kenyans "for the purpose of exploitation by means of deception", state prosecutors said on Thursday.
The victims were rescued last September from an apartment complex in Athi River, a town near the capital, Nairobi, before they could travel to Russia.
However, three others had already left Kenya, finding themselves on the front line of the war and returning home with injuries, the prosecutors added. Omwamba, aged 33, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
A total of 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight for Russia in its four-year war against Ukraine, a report from Kenya's National Intelligence Service (NIS), released last week, said.
