A Kenyan family is living through a nightmare after discovering—through a TV news bulletin—that their loved one had died thousands of kilometres away in the Russia–Ukraine war.
For Grace Gathoni, the moment was surreal and devastating.
She only learned that her husband, 39-year-old Martin Macharia, was dead when his name appeared on KTN News.
Until that moment, she had been anxiously waiting for his promised call.
Macharia had travelled to Russia in October after being offered what he believed was a simple driver/cleaner job.
According to his family, however, the reality was far from what he had been promised.
They say he was taken into military training, had his passport confiscated, and was pushed toward the frontlines after just 72 hours.
His last text to his wife—sent on November 19—remains unread.
By then, reports indicate he had already been killed in Donetsk.
To date, Macharia’s family says they have received no official communication from Russian authorities, no confirmation of where his body is, and no guidance on how to bring him home.
The man who linked him to the opportunity has vanished and the agent’s office is empty.
Even Peter Kimemia, the friend Macharia travelled with, is missing.
Now, Grace is making a desperate appeal to President William Ruto and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi to intervene so her husband’s remains can be repatriated for a dignified burial.
The family says they are sinking deeper into despair: four children waiting, a widow with no closure, and a community in Ruaka trying to hold them together one day at a time.
Macharia had hoped Russia would offer him a better life.
Instead, his family is left with grief, silence, and unanswered questions.
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