A suspected "key player" in a network that allegedly sent more than 1,000 Kenyans to Russia, where many were forcibly recruited into the army, has been arrested, Kenyan police announced late Wednesday.

Festus Omwamba, 33, "a man who was under police surveillance for his involvement in human trafficking," was arrested by agents in Moyale, a border town with Ethiopia, according to a statement from the Kenyan Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

This founder of a recruitment agency, Global Face Human Resources, through which many of the victims passed, "is an alleged key player in a vast human trafficking network," added the DCI on X.

He is currently "in custody and is the subject of proceedings in preparation for his upcoming court appearance," Kenyan police continued.

More than 1,000 Kenyans have been forcibly recruited into the Russian army, Kenyan MP Kimani Ichung'wah claimed last week, saying he was basing his statement on a joint report from the intelligence services and the DCI.

Mr. Ichung'wah explained that an investigation had described Mr. Omwamba as "the mastermind of the operation based in Kenya (...) associated with other agents in Moscow."

Several media outlets, including AFP, have recently shown how these men, often with no military background, were promised well-paid civilian jobs in Russia from Kenya, only to find themselves, once there, forced to sign a contract with the Russian army.

Sent to the front in Ukraine, often after very short military training, many of them perished.

AFP was able to speak to four Kenyans who had been able to return home after experiencing war and death in the Russian ranks. Three of them had been wounded.

One of them went there believing he would become a salesman, two others hoping to be security guards, and the fourth a top-level athlete.

The four men had been recruited through the Global Face Human Resources agency and had denounced Mr. Omwamba's role in this affair, as well as that of one of his employees, Edward Gituku, who is currently being prosecuted for human trafficking but has been released on bail.

AFP was unable to reach the agency, which has moved several times within Nairobi in recent months. Festus Omwamba, for his part, had blocked AFP's calls.

The Russian government "has never been involved in the illegal recruitment of Kenyan citizens into the armed forces of the Russian Federation," the Russian embassy in Kenya responded on February 19.