The amount of money that Russia is promising to pay men from Kenya who travel to join its forces in the war with Ukraine can now be revealed. This follows information that has been collected by the Kenya embassy in Moscow, Russia, from Kenyans who have been getting rescued from the warfront and repatriated back to Kenya.
According to the information, men who are recruited into the Russian army as mercenaries are being paid an initial payment of approximately Sh4.4 million within the first three weeks after signing the contract. They are then paid a monthly compensation of Sh540,000.
In the event a recruit suffers injury in the war, he is paid Sh5 million while compensation for death has been set at Sh24 million.
A related report by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) that was presented to parliament has placed the monthly salaries that are promised to these recruits at Sh350,000 with bonuses of Sh900,000.
Although these figures are contained in the contracts that these men are signing with Russia, the Kenyan embassy has not established if any Kenyan has actually been paid the amounts stipulated in the contracts.
“The [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] is yet to establish whether any Kenyan national has received their full entitlements as stipulated in their contracts. The prospect of financial incentives has contributed to growing participation,” a confidential brief by Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi that is dated February 9, states.
In this brief, Mudavadi also reveals that some of the Kenyan men fighting for Russia in its aggression against Ukraine are former members of the Kenya Defense Forces and the Kenya Police Service.
“Some of these individuals are believed to be former members of disciplined services, including the Kenya Defense Forces, the National Youth Service, and the Prisons Service,” the brief states.
The document further notes that Kenyans in the war signed the contracts fully aware of what they were getting themselves into.
Shockingly, the document further states that Kenyans who have gone missing in the war might be dead and buried.
“[We] have been informed by Kenyans who have been rescued safely back to Kenya that the deceased have been buried in mass graves with minimal chance of retrace,” the brief noted.
READ MORE: Shock tales of Kenyan men dying while fighting for Russia in Ukraine
