•The ministry of foreign affairs had said that four others opted to remain in Ukraine at the time.
•James was together with 26 other students. They made frantic efforts to get help but in vain.
Image: THIRD PARTY IMAGE via REUTERS
A Kenyan student who was living in Ukraine when conflict erupted has claimed the government did little in evacuating them.
James Kurgat*, a fourth-year medical student at Sumy State University, said tension and anxiety among Kenyans living in Ukraine kept raising days after Russia invaded Ukraine.
He says he was living in Sumy, a city in the northeastern part of Ukraine.
Russia launched its military operation against Ukraine by bombing the main railway line serving the town.
James was together with 26 other students. They made frantic efforts to get help but in vain.
He said that when the government informed its citizens that Kenyans in the Eastern European country were safe and well catered for, not much had been done.
Kurgat told the Star that though he is now safe in Budapest Hungary, he feels the government did not do much to help them.
Kenya does not have an embassy in Ukraine and is only served by the one in Moscow. It only has a consulate.
"We would make every effort to reach the consulate and the Embassy in Moscow but not much would come out of it," he said.
Of his 26 colleagues, six were rescued by their families. "We were rescued on the 14th day of the war," he said.
"The state was suggesting that those who were stranded had refused to be moved to safety yet we were on our own," he said.
On March 1, the government announced that it had evacuated some 78 Kenyans, that 74 had crossed over to Poland, two safe in Romania, and another two in Hungary.
The ministry of foreign affairs had said that four others opted to remain in Ukraine at the time.
"All the while, we were stuck in Ukraine," Kurgat said.
Last week, the ministry announced that 26 students were evacuated from Sumy through the humanitarian corridor to Poltava and were being moved to Lviv on the Ukraine border with Poland.
But the student claims that he and his friends got to safety in Hungary "by our efforts and God's grace".
"We talked to the border agents to let us go and looking for means of getting out of the besieged country through 'panya routes'. But they must take credit for everything," he said.
The 28-year-old said that they had trouble getting food and water when the war struck.
"It was sad to see the Nigerian government come to their citizen's help. They even paid for their stay in the foreign countries."
He said he now lives in Hungary with four of his colleagues and it's their families footing the bills.