Kenyans fighting for Russia 'struck a deal with the devil'
Opinion
By
Muchiri Karanja
| Jun 26, 2026
There’s something called a Faustian bargain, which simply means striking a deal with the devil. From the Serpent and Eve in the Good Book to Goethe’s Faust and Stephen Benét’s The Devil and Daniel Webster, the blood-for-money Faustian deal rarely ends well for those who sign it.
In all the tales, there is much crying, begging, and gnashing of teeth when the deal goes seriously wrong, as it is wont to do—usually after the signatory breaches the contract when it matures and the devil demands his due.
Ukrainian rescuers work to extinguish a fire at the site of an air attack in Zaporizhzhia on June 25, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [AFP]
By then, it is too late. The deal is done, and nothing short of a miracle can save the person who signs a deal with the devil.
Let this sink in for every Kenyan parent who has a son fighting for foreign countries: The day your son signed that deal with the Russians, he signed away his life.
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Indeed, stories about Kenyans suffering in foreign wars often ignore those who returned wealthier than before—they only highlight those that got the short end of the stick and suddenly want everyone involved in a deal that they signed in secret.
But it is all water under the bridge now, and the devil, like all shrewd businessmen, seems to have rejected all entreaties to change the terms of the deal. The best the government can do now is convince the Russians to bring the bodies back home—at the families’ expense.
The second-best option is to have a lawyer scrutinise the deal that your son signed with the Russians and, perhaps, find a loophole through which to sue for reparations.
But that, too, might not work, especially if the Russians realise that some of the fellows who listed “soldier” as experience on their CVs were actually security guards, drivers, and village idlers whose only experience with guns and gunfights had been acquired through watching too many movies.
When the Russians begin to realise they were fooled, they might decide to sue the government brokers who facilitated the passports and visas for complicity in serious international fraud-as they should, because the Russian connection in this recruitment scam has some elements of labour fraud.
Still, there are lessons to be learned from the entire Russia affair, chief among them that far from a diplomatic issue, it is a local youth unemployment problem. It is an indication that attempts by the State and politicians to hoodwink our youth with petty cash handouts are doing little to tame their desperate, and restless spirits.
One of the Kenyans currently a prisoner of war in Ukraine—and probably one of the men whose parents are blaming the government for not bringing him back home—told the BBC that he intends to remain in Russia if he is released.
In essence, this young man was mocking those demanding compensation and free air tickets for Kenyan mercenaries in Ukraine. He was saying: “Who told you I want to come back home? I’d rather die poor in Moscow than rich in Nairobi!”
The young man was simply stating a point that many Kenyan youths have been trying to make in recent times: That there is little pride left in being Kenyan. As far as they are concerned, we might as well sell this country and relocate to Russia.
As for the government, the payback for its role in the Russian connection might come when more jobless youths—the same ones who nearly staged a coup during the 2024 Gen Z protests—sneak out to Russia and return with better gun-handling skills than the local police.
If a few uneducated Africans who served as porters in the British Army returned to stir up the Mau Mau rebellion, no government should feel safe when its citizens return from Russia with more military experience than some of our boys in the barracks.
It follows then that the footing bill for every Tom, Dick, and Harry who suffers the consequences of striking a deal with the devil is akin to using taxpayer’s money to feed a deadly serpent.
- Muchiri is a media and public communications consultant. muchiri.karanja@gmail.com