Kenyan students in Ukraine: The state has abandoned us

On the morning that Russia invaded Ukraine, Peter, a Kenyan fifth-year medical student was attending a virtual class on surgery.

Oblivious of what was at stake for him and others living in Ukraine, he focused on what was and not what was to be.

The war seemed implausible as the Ukrainian government had tried to play down the threat. Russia invaded Ukraine in February from the north, east and south and has been bombarding several cities.

Yet Peter and 26 other Kenyans students studying at Sumy State University in the north eastern region have been struggling for two weeks to get out of the country, to no avail.

When Russian troops started amassing on the Ukrainian border, the face of war was not distant anymore. They are now right in the middle of the war, but they are on their own – no government official has tried to rescue them and they fear they may die.

Nobody was prepared

“It was abrupt and the tension kept building by the day. Nobody was prepared for it at all. We could not really act fast and move out of the country,” Peter told the Nation yesterday.

“About 2,000 international students were stuck in school because we were asked to stay until the last day of the attack. Other cities were calm and were not attacked and were the first to be evacuated. Those of us near the border regions remained stranded to date.”

Peter used to live in an apartment outside the school but because of the security risk, he moved close to the campus.

“We sleep in bunkers (an underground shelter mostly used in wartime). Some days, I sleep at the hostels but I barely get any sleep,” he said.

“The school’s hostel is a bit secure but we still can see bombings from the air and we do not feel safe. Most of the night, the bunkers are our go-to places.”

Getting space in a bunker is not guaranteed – it is a survival for the fittest scenario.

“We receive alerts to go to the bunker and we scramble to get in just to be safe. As days went by, the electricity supply was cut off but it was restored on the eighth day. Food supplies and medications have run low. Businesses closed down and it is not safe outside.”

No bathing

Ali Ahmed, a fourth-year student, said he had not had the luxury to bathe as water is scarce.

“On normal days, I live in the hostel but for now, I moved out to live with a friend who has an apartment. There, we have some water, about 20 litres, which we use sparingly. In the hostels, my friends tell me they are using snow as water,” he said

“There is more bombing now and the strikes are getting closer to where we are and very soon some of us will be no more. All the other nations are being taken care of but it is only Kenyan students that are left here on our own. Even the ones in the safer cities used their own means to evacuate themselves.

“The girls here cry all the time and we try to stay together and tell stories to keep our mind off the war, but when the bomb sound hits you, you start coming back to reality.”

Helped by Russian military

Surprisingly, Ali said, those who managed to cross the borders to neighbouring countries were helped by the Russian military.

“Here, everyone is for himself and this year, for the first time in my four years, I need help from the Kenyan ambassador but no one is heeding our call.”

The situation is similar to what happened when Covid-19 struck the world and Kenyan students had to stay in Ukraine as there was no flight to Kenya.

When Simon (not his real name) left Kenya in 2018 to study at a university in Ukraine he could not have known that four years later he would be caught up in the middle of a war.

Each day has now become a struggle for survival for him.

Basic human essentials like food, water and electricity have become scarce, and sometimes the students go days without any of them.

Simon sought help from the Kenyan Embassy in Moscow to be evacuated but he said he had not heard from officials there.

No word from embassy in Moscow

“We have been trying to contact the Kenyan Embassy in Moscow for 13 days to no avail. Even before the war started we tried to get information from the embassy to know the way forward. The only person who has been in touch with us is the honorary consul of Kenya in Ukraine, Anatoliy Kovalenko,” Simon said.

But the fourth-year medical student said there is only so much the consul could do.

“It seems the Kenya government does not have much interest in making sure all its citizens have been evacuated to safe areas,” he said.

The only communication they received from the embassy was a letter saying that Ukraine’s borders with neighbouring countries were open to fleeing foreigners.

But it is impossible for them to move from where they are to the borders due to the distance and security concerns.

“The embassy says that the Hungary border is open but how do we get there. It is a long distance from Sumy state where we are. The railway line was bombed out. Other countries have been able to evacuate their citizens who are students at the university,” he said.

Shops, food stores, pharmacies and other convenience stores are all closed. “Some of the students here were under medication before the war started; now they are unable to get any medicine. The few pharmacies that continue to operate usually experience long queues from locals. We are literally waiting for death.

No food

“As I speak to you right now I have no food, I am emotionally and physically drained. With the bombings, we are just like sitting ducks, we do not know if we are going to be the next target. We are all confined to our hostels and we can’t go out because of insecurity.”

A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in early March claimed that 74 Kenyan students had crossed into Poland as of February 28, with four more in Romania and Hungary and that all registered Kenyans who were in Ukraine were safe.

By evening Tuesday, Peter, Ali and other students had decided to risk their lives and use taxis to get out to the border.

That would cost them about $3,000 (Sh300,000) cumulatively, about Sh11,000 each.

“That is the lowest price and we are only being taken to the border. We are not sure if we will get there as we are still outside and it is cold,” Peter said.

Peter sent to us a screenshot of the temperature where they were. It was negative one degrees Celsius. In heavy winter jackets and carrying suitcases, they waited for their saving grace.

Green corridor

“The green corridor (which is the safe exit) was opened today and we are hoping to be taken out soon,” he said.

A Ukrainian volunteer consul, who is now in Poland, offered to help but his hands were tied. There was nothing he could do to help get them out. He kept promising to help, giving them hope, but it was all just a facade.

The nearest Kenyan embassy is in Moscow, Russia, and the stranded Kenyan students said they had not received any communication from them.

“The government is not responsible for our safe exit at all. We have waited for two weeks,” said Peter.

By evening, Peter had sent a video to us showing a bus in the empty north-eastern region of Ukraine that borders Russia. The students were hoping to get to their destination safely, but still they felt like children of a lesser God.

By publication time, they had not arrived at the border. They clung to hope and tried to remain warm.

Update: Kenya's Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau said that the government had evacuated practically all of those who were willing to be evacuated.

"Our job was to get them out of Ukraine and we have done so. Now the Ministry of Education should bring them home if they need to be paid for but indeed most of them have parents who are willing to pay for them," he said. 

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