Published in The Slow Newscast (The Observer), this podcast episode is part of Alameda’s After Order project

Who ends up fighting in a war that isn’t theirs, and how do they get there?

The Kenyan government estimates that more than 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight for Russia, many of them after responding to advertisements for civilian jobs.

In the latest episode of The Slow Newscast from The Observer, journalist Francisco Garcia investigates how these recruitment networks operate and how economic insecurity can draw people into a war thousands of miles from home.

The episode follows Stephen (not his real name), a former Kenyan military pilot who travelled to Russia after being offered a security job. Instead, he was sent to a military camp and eventually to the front line in Ukraine.

His story is part of a wider investigation into the recruitment of foreign fighters, the networks connecting job seekers to the Russian military, and the economic conditions that make promises of work abroad so powerful.

The episode is part of Alameda’s After Order project, which examines the transformation of sovereignty in a time of catastrophe.

→ Listen to the full episode Duped and deployed: the Kenyans fighting for Russia, published by The Observer.