NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — At a memorial ceremony in central Kenya in early February, a photograph perched on a chair, with roses placed neatly next to it and candles burning in memory of Charles Waithaka Wangari, a 31-year-old Kenyan who died in the Russian war in Ukraine in December. Waithaka, a rising soccer player, had traveled to Russia in October to work as a heavy machinery operator at a factory, but had been conscripted into the Russian army and deployed to the front lines soon after he arrived. He was killed by an explosion at the front line, barely two months after arriving in Russia. His family got word of his death on Christmas Day and was told that his remains could not be retrieved due to intense fighting.  “I plead with the government to bring back my son’s body, so that I can ​​properly bury him. I know if I ​​bury him, I will heal and find inner peace,” Bibiana Wangari, his mother​, told Religion News Service last week. “At the moment, I feel …