For Jane Muneria and Leonard Sullo, the wait for her first-born son has become a painful exercise in uncertainty.

Her son, Evans Kibet, a Kenyan long-distance runner, left the country for Russia believing he was pursuing an opportunity in athletics.

Instead, he ended up on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Kibet has told investigators and journalists that he was deceived into signing a Russian military contract after travelling to Russia. He was subsequently deployed to fight in Ukraine, where he was captured by Ukrainian forces and is now being held as a prisoner of war.

Kibet was among the first Kenyans whose capture in Ukraine brought international attention to the growing number of Kenyans caught up in Russia’s war.

His mother says the family never imagined that the son who left home in search of an opportunity would end up thousands of kilometres away, caught in a war he never expected to fight.

“When he left, we knew he had gone to look for an opportunity. We never knew that he would end up in a war. I keep asking myself, where is my child? Is he okay? What is he going through? We know he is alive, but knowing that he is alive and being unable to bring him home is very painful.,” his mother says.

New Content Item (2) — Some Kenyans have been recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine.

Photo credit: Pool

For more than a year, a family has lived in fear of the unknown. Ms Muneria says the family last spoke to her son in February, leaving them with unanswered calls and uncertainty about his safety. For her, the distance between Kenya and Ukraine is not measured in kilometres, but in the long nights spent wondering whether her son is safe and in the constant fear that something could happen to him before she gets the chance to see him again.

“Every day, I wake up hoping that today will be the day I hear my son’s voice again. I don’t know if he is safe, and that uncertainty is breaking my heart. He is thousands of kilometres away, and all I can do is wait, pray and hope that one day he will come home to us,” said Ms Muneria.

Also Read: ‘Death brokers’ of Russian-Ukraine war promise millions to grieving Kenyan families

Her greatest concern now is getting her son home, but she says the family feels increasingly frustrated by what they see as the government’s silence.

Despite their pleas for help, they say they have received little information about what is being done to bring him back.

“I am pleading with the government to please do something to help us bring our child home. We don’t eat, we are worried all the time. We have waited for so long, and the silence is painful. We need to know that someone is listening and that our son has not been forgotten. Even if it is difficult, please try. We just want our child back home,” she said.

For Leonard Sullo, Evan Kibet’s father, the expectation was for his son to return home from Russia with stories of a new beginning. Instead, the family is now waiting for the return of a son who ended up a prisoner of war in Ukraine.

New Content Item (2) — Evans Kibet.

Photo credit: Pool

When Evans left Kenya, his family believed he was travelling to Russia to look for work and build a better life. He had been doing casual work back home, including construction-related jobs, but he had been hoping for something better. According to his father, Evans told the family that a friend had invited him to Russia.

They did not know that the journey would eventually lead him to the battlefield in Ukraine.

Also Read: Why Kenyans fighting in Russia will not be compensated

“We knew he was going to Russia because he had been told there was an opportunity there. He told us he had a friend there who had called him. We thought he would go, work and then come back home. We never imagined that he would end up in Ukraine,” he said.

The family waited. They expected their son to return. But instead, they began hearing troubling information about what had happened to him. Sullo says the family eventually learnt that Evans was no longer in Russia and had ended up in Ukraine. That was when the family’s fears began to take a different shape.

“He never told us that he was going there to fight. We did not know anything about that. He only told us that he had a friend who had invited him to Russia. He was doing casual work here. His intention was to go there and look for work. He thought that when he went there, he would get something better. That is what we understood. We did not know that he was going to be involved in fighting,” Sullo says.

Relatives of Kenyans recruited to fight in Ukraine for Russia pray outside Parliament Buildings, calling for clarity on the suspected involvement of State officials in the recruitment.

Photo credit: Reuters

Also Read: Document reveals extent of Kenyan deaths on Russian frontline

And behind their anxiety is a question that continues to haunt the family: How did a young Kenyan who left home looking for work end up in a war?

“We are asking the government to help us. We want our son to come home so that we can see him again and live together as a family,” he says.

“We have heard that our President is a friend of the Ukrainian President. So we are asking, if they can talk, let them talk about our children. Let them ask them to help us. We are only asking them to help us bring our son home,” he added.

In March 2026, Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi travelled to Moscow and secured Russian assurances concerning Kenyan nationals. Kenya also pushed Russia to stop recruiting Kenyans into its military. The government said Kenya had been placed on a “STOP LIST” for recruitment.

The diplomatic efforts have come as the families of Kenyans captured while fighting for Russia wait for their relatives to return home.

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mesimiyu@ke.nationmedia.com