Review deadly Haiti job

The rising number of casualties for the Kenyan police mission in Haiti calls for an urgent review of this deadly assignment.

Since the police officers were deployed to the country’s capital Port-au- Prince in June last year, two have paid the ultimate price following clashes with the killer gangs.

The latest incident has left another two officers nursing serious injuries, and the situation could get worse as the Haitian gang leaders continue to target the Kenyans. The police officers have in the past one week clashed several times with the gangs.

Though sanctioned by the United Nations, the Haiti mission was initially funded by the American government. However, given last November’s change of leadership, there are programmes that are beginning to suffer lack of support. This happens to be one of them.

The country was stunned when it was revealed that Sh2.1 billion had been allocated to the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission in the financial year 2024/2025. That is a tidy expense on an international project for a country that is struggling to fund health and education, among other key services.

The MSS currently has 1,000 security personnel, about three-quarters of them from Kenya. Its objective is to restore security for Haiti to hold elections by February 2026. Heavily armed gangs have killed thousands of people since 2021.

It is ironical that Kenya has not just suffered the deaths of its police officers, but is also spending its own money on a foreign mission when its own northeastern counties are increasingly coming under terrorist attacks waged by the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab group, with a number of deaths suffered. The terrorists last month abducted five chiefs in Mandera County and spirited them across the border, where they are still being held captive.

The government should reassess the situation in Haiti and, perhaps, recall the police officers from harm’s way.