Charles Mutoka, a 72-year-old Kenyanis in mourning for his son, Oscar Khagola Mutoka, a former soldier who traveled to Russia in the summer of 2025 to look for work.
His father said that he had tried in vain to talk him out of it. Oscar did not tell him and the rest of his family exactly where he was going but a week after leaving he sent a picture of himself in uniform and never got back in touch again.
His family found out that he had died some time later but, despite appeals to the Kenyan authorities, they were not able to recover the body.
In May 2026, the family held a symbolic memorial service and set up a makeshift burial site for Oscar, in order to at least have a place where they could pray. "The worst part is that I don't know if and where he was actually buried, or if his body was simply dumped in a forest in Russia," Charles Mutoka said.Charles Mutoka, father of Oscar Khagola Mutoka, a former Kenyan soldier who died fighting in the Ukraine warImage: DW
Oscar Mutoka is one of an estimated 27,000 or more foreign nationals recruited by Russia for its war in Ukraine,according to the Defense Intelligence ofUkraine (HUR). A joint study conducted by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Truth Houndshuman rights organization and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (KIBHR) provides evidence that Russia has set up a global network for recruiting foreign nationals.
