Of Kenyans dying for Putin in war and wrong man for Romania presidency; Russia's manipulative game

Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before talks in Moscow on March 16, 2026. [AFP]

In Romania, it was an unknown man winning the first round of the presidential election in 2024. State security organs traced the push for a Pro -Russian individual to be elected president of the country to Russia’s manipulation of the electorate.

The man, Callin Georgescu, now faces charges before court of attempts to commit actions against the constitutional order, allegedly involving plans to organise violent events in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

For Kenya, it has been the troubling case of its unemployed youth duped into fighting for Russia in a war that is not of their motherland. Already, a petition by affected families is before parliament after investigative agencies took up the matter. Parliament was told of the deceptive recruitment run by Russian agents aided by its Embassy in Nairobi and unscrupulous Kenyan government officials. The Russian embassy has denied involvement.

Moscow’s attempts at interfering with democratic processes in European countries and its success at netting fighters from the Global South to die for Russia in its war against Ukraine explain the lengths to which it is prepared to go in its eternal political game of creating a new sphere of influence to challenge Western democracy.  Some of the countries affected in the Global South include Ghana, South Africa, Nepal, Kenya, Central American and Southeast Asian countries, among others

The methods of recruitment have been a direct contradiction to Western values and the call of the United Nations Human Rights Charter

“Testimonies from prisoners of war and others describe contracts signed without informed consent, confiscation of

passports, restrictions on freedom of movement, inadequate training and threats against those seeking to leave military service - practices that may amount to human trafficking,” said Amnesty International in its September Report.

The European Union warns African countries about Russia’s uncontrolled thirst for a new sphere of influence that countries must be on the lookout for.

“In an era of growing technological progress and internet penetration across Sub-Saharan Africa, Russia has seized the opportunity to flood the African information landscape with deceptive narratives”

Said Sebastian Babaud of the EU’s External Services during a training session in Romania’s capital, Bucharest.

It was through the internet that Russian agents knocked on Kenya’s door of unemployment armed with what looked like solutions to perhaps the biggest challenge facing the country today: the problem of lack of jobs for the youth.

Presenting Russia as a country of the good life beaming with opportunities for the youth of Africa, advertisements for jobs ran online carrying a utopian fervour: Build your future with Russia! Opportunity to work and settle in Russia! Russia, Direct Employment visa!  

(L) Martin Macharia and Peter Kimemia in Russia. [Courtesy]

Recorded videos of young African women living the good life in Russia were shared on Telegram to entice.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted at several conferences speaking about Russia’s friendly heart to Africa: “Our country supported the liberation of the countries in this continent from colonial rule and provided practical assistance in establishing their statehood,” he said in a statement shared at a Ministerial conference in Cairo in late 2025.

The promised jobs were drivers, security guards, cooks, or logistics personnel that carried monthly salaries of Sh250,000 to 350,000 plus bonuses. Coming at a time when the government had earlier broadcast information about jobs abroad, through the kazi majuu program spearheaded by the articulate Cabinet Secretary for labour Alfred Mutua, few unemployed youths doubted the promise.

One year after the campaign, though, complaints began to flood social media as mainstream media latched on to revelations by families looking for sons that had turned unreachable, now serving in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

By the time the country was waking up to the dangers of the Russian job promise, at least 1,000 Kenyans had been recruited, according to a National Intelligence Service February report.

“Russian manipulation of information hinges on real grievances in society,” said Oana Marinescu, a strategic communications consultant and Managing Director at OmaVision, a Bucharest-based disinformation buster

“Narratives that are built are never far -fetched. They are anchored on problems that face the population of a country. It is such grievances as employment, rights of children, that are explored for the benefit of the source”

“Over the past half-decade, Russia has cultivated a disinformation ecosystem, where fabricated and unverified information often eclipses facts and independent journalism in many African countries,” said Babaud, an official of the EU’s External Services

“Beyond the realm of using information manipulation against the West, this insidious activity undermines trust in democratic institutions and raises significant security concerns for local populations”.

Charles Ojiambo Mutoka, 72, with portraits of his son, Oscar, killed in August. [AFP]

As Kenya suffers the work of Russian agents, losing its sons to Moscow’s war in Romania, Georgescu faces charges before court over issues related to tensions that followed the 2024 presidential elections, where he won the first round.

Unknown then to the Romanian electorate, the man suddenly grew in popularity through TikTok. On November 24, the country held its presidential elections. The results came in a twisted plot nobody saw coming. Călin Georgescu suddenly won the first round with 23% of the vote. Georgescu was an independent candidate who had barely registered in opinion polls during the campaign.

Who was the individual, and how did someone with practically no visible political momentum in the country suddenly surge to the front? The people started to dig; The media, political analysts, and even casual voters.

It emerged that Georgescu was a former UN bureaucrat turned nationalist figure, known for promoting conspiracy theories, including anti-EU, anti-NATO narratives. A thoroughly pro-Russian individual supporting an authoritarian-style government. He had previously expressed admiration for controversial authoritarian leaders. His rhetoric often echoed messages favoured by the Kremlin.

“So why would a "foreign state" be interested in helping him? Because a president openly critical of Romania’s Western alliances would mean exactly what Russia and others hostile to NATO want: a weaker European Union and a destabilised Eastern flank.” Wrote Luiza Elena Zob on the European Union’s youth portal.

The Standard learns that a few days later, the government declassified intelligence reports, confirming that a “foreign state” engaged in a coordinated cyber campaign to manipulate public opinion in favour of Georgescu.

Under Romania’s electoral law, elections can be annulled if foreign interference significantly impacts the results. This is exactly what the court ruled on December 6, 2024, making Romania the first European country to cancel a presidential election due to cyber warfare; for some, this was a necessary move to protect democracy. For others, it set a dangerous precedent, raising the question of who decides when foreign influence is too much.

Russian authorities denied involvement in Romania’s elections.

Earlier in 2016, Romanian intelligence services detected narratives emerging from the country’s social media landscape, stories that said life was better during the soviet era- before 1989.

Today, no Romanian citizen buys that narrative; they know it has its roots in Russia, which they treat as the country’s greatest threat to its national security; raw memories of Soviet era colonialism still exist.

Kenyans, on the other hand, have lacked that advantage and easily believed narratives about Russia’s job promise and other development cooperation. Authorities, despite benefiting from intelligence reports exchanged between countries, have not been clear about Russia’s endgame.  

Only last week Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi met Russian ambassador to Kenya Vsevolod Tkachenko at his office, where they discussed the upcoming Third Russia-Africa Summit.

Mudavadi said Kenya’s mission remains to turn diplomacy into opportunities, investment and tangible benefits for Kenyans.

Among the benefits that the Kenyan delegation will be pushing for in Moscow is an increase in the number of scholarships issued to Kenyan students to 70 annually.

The EU does better on the scholarships front, though; Romania alone has this year issued more than what Kenya is pushing for in Russia.

“This year alone we have issued 70 scholarships for Kenyan students to study in universities in Romania”, said Romania’s ambassador to Kenya, Gentiana Serbu “We have other projects in different areas including climate change, education, health and gender.”

On September 17, 2026, First Lady Rachel Ruto opened the Human Kenya–Romania Conference on Gender-Based Violence, Femicide, Trafficking and Online Child Safety in Nairobi

Mudavadi’s discussions with the Russian Mission in Kenya did not touch on the most pressing issue that Kenyans want from Russia. A statement shared by his office after the meeting made no mention of the issue before parliament, which is hundreds of families enduring sleepless nights as they seek answers to missing relatives trapped in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The issues under discussion remained solely around preparations for the upcoming Summit and key areas of bilateral cooperation

“The two sides emphasised the importance of identifying practical and mutually beneficial opportunities to deepen economic and diplomatic ties and explore new areas of cooperation that support shared transformation and development priorities for the two nations”. Said the statement in part.