The Kenyan and Haiti governments have signed a security agreement to enable the deployment of 1,000 police officers to Haiti to tackle the escalating gang violence in the country.
Kenya’s President William Ruto and Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry oversaw the formalisation of the deal on Friday, March 1.
President Ruto hosted PM Henry at State House in Nairobi, the country’s capital, where they held discussions on fast-tracking the deployment process of Kenyan police officers to the troubled Caribbean nation.
“I take this opportunity to reiterate Kenya’s commitment to contribute to the success of this multi-national mission. We believe this is a historic duty because peace in Haiti is good for the world as a whole,” Ruto said.
Expressing gratitude, Prime Minister Henry acknowledged Ruto and Kenya for taking the lead in the security mission aimed at stabilising Haiti.
“What this mission is bringing is hope for the future of humankind, for a people who cannot see how they will live tomorrow,” the PM said.
Haiti is currently plagued with an unprecedented spike in gang violence.
Haiti’s security, justice, political, and humanitarian crises worsened. Killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence perpetrated by criminal groups escalated throughout 2023.
Human Rights Watch reported that more than 40% of the population faced acute food shortages due to the escalating violence.
Since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, Prime Minister Henry, lacking parliamentary approval and a constitutional mandate, has been governing by decree.
Despite a legal challenge to the deployment of the troops currently before the court, Ruto emphasised the extensive consultations with member states to transform global solidarity into tangible support for the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS).
The deployment of 1,000 police officers received approval from both the UNSC and Cabinet on October 13, 2023, and subsequently gained unanimous approval from Parliament on November 16, 2023.
