Kenyan officials tight-lipped on disputed police mission to Haiti
Haitian security forces lob tear gas cannisters to disperse demonstrators who were protesting against the rising crime wave in Carrefour-Feuilles, a district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in mid August.
What you need to know:
- Individual police officers have received the invitation with mixed reactions, unsure whether to applaud or denounce the offer.
- What is certain, however, is that the government has given the go-ahead for the mission for a period of one year, with a review after nine months.
The Ministry of Interior has remained tight-lipped on the impending deployment of police officers to Haiti, even as Kenyans last evening awaited a decision by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on whether to endorse a resolution to deploy a multi-agency force by January.
Efforts by Nation to get facts about the deployment and details of the mission had not borne fruit by yesterday evening. Police spokesperson Resila Onyango referred us to the ministry for answers, which in turn referred us back to her.
Individual police officers have received the invitation with mixed reactions, unsure whether to applaud or denounce the offer, with some feeling that, with proper planning, the mission could succeed.
What is certain, however, is that the government has given the go-ahead for the mission for a period of one year, with a review after nine months.
While maintaining support for the mission, President William Ruto told the UN General Assembly last month that collective action by members of the international community was needed as Haitians were suffering immensely from “the bitter legacy of slavery, colonialism, sabotage and neglect”.
Days later, officials who have spoken publicly about the mission — Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua and Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome — have expressed confidence that Kenya will succeed in a mission that many have criticised as too risky for a force unfamiliar with the terrain and local language.
“Yes, we are going to Haiti. We will lead this mission. We have never failed. We will succeed,” Mr Koome said last week.
However, Amnesty International has called on the UNSC to scrutinise the human rights record of the multinational force before approving its deployment, citing a history of abuses and impunity in past foreign interventions.
“The human rights record of any security force deployed to help bring stability to Haiti should be carefully assessed. Accordingly, we stress the importance of fully examining the human rights record of the Kenyan security forces before supporting their deployment to Haiti,” said Mr Renzo Pomi, Amnesty International’s representative to the UN, in a letter to the UNSC.
It remains unclear which senior officer will lead the mission, whether the team will receive pre-deployment training, and how those to be deployed will be selected.
If the mission is approved and funded by the US to the tune of $100 million as promised, Kenyan police officers will join peacekeepers from Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbuda, Antigua and the Haitian National Police, which has suffered heavy losses due to gang violence.
Between January 1 and 15 August, at least 2,439 people were killed, 902 injured and 951 kidnapped, marking an alarming escalation in violence since the beginning of the year, according to the latest report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In December last year, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the UNSC that insecurity had reached unprecedented levels, with widespread human rights violations, including widespread sexual violence by armed gangs.
Speaking at the same session, Kenya's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Martin Kimani, attributed the situation to “a governance deficit that is the result of an outrageous history of economic punishment for the country’s revolution against slavery and colonialism”.
