Kenya to Deploy Police to End Gang War in Haiti

Kenya says it’s confident the deployment of hundreds of its police to Haiti by January will end gang warfare there.

Last year Haiti’s government appealed for help due to the spiraling gang violence.

Gangs have largely overpowered the police and now have more than three-quarters of the capital under control.

Initially Kenyan officials spoke of around 1,000 officers going to Haiti to train local police and help protect key installations there.

But Kenya’s Foreign Minister, Alfred Mutua says it will be an intervention force to disarm what he called the “thugs and the gangs”.

Alfred Mutua said the Kenyan police would free Haitians who had been kidnapped and free women who were being raped.

He said he did not expect there to be much violence.

Some have expressed skepticism about sending officers 12,000 kilometers, away to Haiti.

Especially as there are lots of law and order challenges in Kenya and rights groups have long accused the police of atrocities including killings and torture.

Its “proposed deployment” still required a mandate from the UN Security Council and approval from domestic authorities, he said.

“An Assessment Mission by a Task Team of the Kenya Police is scheduled within the next few weeks. This assessment will inform and guide the mandate and operational requirements of the Mission.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone last night to Kenyan president William Ruto, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

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Kenya is seen as a democratic anchor in East Africa, and has participated in peacekeeping operations in its immediate region including in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.

No other details about the Haiti deployment were immediately available.

Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation, has seen compounding humanitarian, political and security crises, with gangs controlling most of Port-au-Prince.

Guterres said this month that violence had continued “to escalate and spread”, citing murders, kidnappings, rape of women and girls, looting, and the displacement of thousands of people.

Guterres, relaying a request from Henry, began calling in October for an international, non-UN deployment to help support police in the troubled nation.

The Security Council this month adopted a unanimous resolution encouraging member states “to provide security support to the Haitian National Police,” including through “the deployment of a specialized force.”

But the text, which was focused on a one-year extension of the mandate for the special UN political mission to Haiti, BINUH, stopped short of making any direct plans for such a force.

The council has asked Guterres to present by mid-August a report on all possible options, including a UN-led mission.

Earlier this month, Blinken said the US remained active in its search for a country to head a multinational force in Haiti.

This week, Washington ordered nonessential personnel and family of government employees to leave the country.

Staff at the US embassy in Port-au-Prince already live under tight security — confined to a protected residential area and forbidden to walk around the capital or use any public transport or taxis.