PRINCE PORT- Another 200 Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti on Tuesday to join a UN-backed mission aimed at restoring security to the Caribbean country ravaged by gang violence.
“There were 200 Kenyan police officers who arrived on June 25 (in Haiti), and 200 more were added today,” said a Haitian government source.
However, a Kenyan police official had earlier said that “they have 600 (agents in Haiti) with the 200 who left last night” from the African country.
This second contingent landed in Port-au-Prince in the morning, where it was received by the new director general of the Haitian police, Rameau Normil, and the commander of the Kenyan police in Haiti, Godfrey Otunge.
The African country has pledged to send 1,000 police officers as part of the mission.
Wave of violence
Haiti has long suffered from violence by armed groups that control 80% of Port-au-Prince and the country’s main roads.
But the situation worsened in late February, when several of these gangs joined forces to attack strategic locations in the capital such as police stations, prisons and the airport, in a showdown with the then Prime Minister, Ariel Henry.
The embattled leader eventually resigned and a transitional presidential council took power with the complicated task of reestablishing security in the country and stopping the serious humanitarian crisis caused by the violence.
Kenya is leading the multinational contingent in Haiti, which is expected to number 2,500 troops with the deployment of police from other countries such as Bangladesh, Benin, Chad, the Bahamas and Barbados.
The mission, which will initially last one year, is intended to assist Haitian police in their anti-gang operations, as well as ensure the security of infrastructure and allow civilians to “access humanitarian aid without hindrance and in a safe manner,” according to a UN Security Council resolution passed in October.
Legal obstacles
The deployment of Kenyan police has drawn sharp criticism in Kenya.
A small opposition party, Thirdway Alliance Kenya, filed a lawsuit against the mission in May in an attempt to block it, arguing that the government had ignored a January 26 ruling that called the initiative “unconstitutional.”
One of the party’s leaders, Ekuru Aukot, said in late June that he would file an “injunction against the deployment”, accusing Kenyan President William Ruto of being “a slave of the United States or the globalists and imperialists”.
The United States has ruled out sending men to Haiti, where it has intervened several times in the past, although it is contributing to the mission with funds and logistical help.
The NGO Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the mission in the impoverished Caribbean country and doubts about its funding.
Several human rights organisations have also accused the Kenyan police of excessive use of force and extrajudicial killings, particularly during anti-government protests that have rocked the East African country since June, in which dozens of demonstrators have died.
Commander Otunge said Tuesday that the first group of Kenyans who arrived in Haiti in June had already begun working with Haitian authorities and hoped to help the local government restore security and economic stability.
“The arrival of this second group shows the Kenyan government’s commitment to the multinational mission,” Otunge said in English from the capital’s airport.
Source: With information from AFP