A Kenyan national who was promised an IT job in Myanmar has sought help through his brother after discovering he was scammed.
According to a statement from the brother dated Saturday, November 29, 2025, his sibling is currently being held in a military camp known as Apollo, located at the border between Myanmar and Thailand.
The brother reported that the Kenyan national told him he had been deceived into believing he had secured an IT job, only to be taken to the Apollo camp, where his passport was confiscated.
“My brother is a victim. He is currently trapped at the border of Myanmar and Thailand. He was tricked into believing he had an IT job and has ended up in the Apollo camp, where their passports were taken. The military took them, and now they are held at the border with no passports and no phones,” the brother said.
Kenyan Cries for Help After Being Captured by Myanmar Military
He further shared that his brother reached out to his family using a phone one of his fellow captors had managed to sneak to him, allowing communication via Telegram.
The brother of the stranded individual is now appealing for assistance, expressing confusion about how to get help.
“Only one person managed to sneak a phone, through which my brother used to reach us through Telegram. Where can we begin to seek help? Should we contact the Thai embassy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or another agency? We are in great distress,” the brother stated.
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This revelation comes months after the Kenyan government, led by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, worked with Thai authorities, local Myanmar armed groups, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and NGOs like HAART Kenya to rescue and repatriate Kenyans trafficked to Myanmar for forced labor related to cyber scams.
In March 2025, the government negotiated with Thailand to reopen the Thai-Myanmar border for the evacuation of 64 Kenyans who had been rescued from human trafficking networks in Myanmar.
These victims often fell prey to fraudulent job offers promising roles in Thailand (e.g., customer service, teaching, or sales).
Court Awards University Student Ksh 5 million
Many were young job seekers from low-income backgrounds who were lured by unregistered recruitment agencies, flown to Bangkok on tourist visas, and then smuggled across the border into Myanmar’s scam compounds (e.g., KK Park in Myawaddy).
There, they faced forced labor in online fraud operations, including cryptocurrency scams, romance scams, and phishing, often under duress from Chinese-led criminal cartels.
In a related human trafficking case, a Kenyan university student named Haron Nyakango was awarded Ksh 5 million in a ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi on November 21, 2025, after he was trafficked to a cyber-scam facility in Myanmar.
Also Read: 74 Kenyans Freed After Delicate Negotiations
The court found the Kenyan recruitment agency, Gratify Solutions International Ltd, and its directors liable for his suffering. Nyakango, a student at Kisii University, was lured with the promise of a lucrative customer service job in Thailand, offering a salary of Ksh 180,000 a month, and was charged a fee of Ksh 200,000.
He ended up in Myanmar, where his passport was confiscated, and he was forced to work in online fraud operations under armed guard.
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