Relatives of Kenyans fighting for Russia in Ukraine hold photographs of their kin in downtown Nairobi on February 19, 2026, during a demonstration demanding accountability. AFP/GETTY IMAGES
I came across this article in which the Russian Orthodox Church in Africa is at the center of serious accusations and a possible huge scandal, in which it is accused of deceitfully recruiting young Africans to send them to the front against Ukraine. Honestly, I am neither surprised nor shocked, but I am saddened by the dynamics of the latest tragedy that has brought the spotlight on these misdeeds of the church, the recent story of Charles Waithaka Wangari, a young Kenyan footballer, deceived with a contract to work in Russia as a heavy machinery operator. With the hope for a better future, he left his home with the belief that an honest job awaited him, but last December, just two months after arriving in Russia, he had died at the front in Ukraine, forced to fight with the Russian army. As an additional insult, the body was never returned to his family, who during the funeral in his village could only place a photo on a chair.
In the case of Charles, but also of many others before him, everything pointed to contacts of the Russian Orthodox Church who had facilitated the journey, guaranteed false contracts, and convinced young Africans to leave, using faith and the pretense of an honest job as a tool to bring them, consciously or unconsciously, to the war in Ukraine.
All of this is part of a bigger plan, in which recently the Russian Orthodox Church has opened hundreds of parishes in dozens of African countries, sent priests, invested money… It is clearly expanding its influence behind the scenes and not for charity. If we think about it, it is the same pattern that all religions have used for centuries: selling hope, salvation and good prospects, exploiting trust and naivety; it is true it happened in other places, with different people, and in different eras, but it is the same thing repeated, after all, as long as it works why stop or change when you can exploit and use it to control people like pawns.
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