Raila party urges MPs to shoot down Ruto's plan to send police to Haiti
ODM party leader Raila Odinga with party Chairman John Mbadi (L) and party Secretary General Edwin Sifuna during the ODM National Governing Council meeting held in Nairobi on March 1, 2019.
The Raila Odinga-led Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has urged MPs to reject the government's plan to deploy police officers to Haiti should the matter be taken to Parliament for approval.
The opposition party has also urged President Ruto to reconsider the decision, citing internal security challenges in the country including in Sondu, Lamu and North Rift as well as the potentially "disastrous outcome" of such a deployment.
In a statement, ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna said the situation in Haiti posed no immediate threat to Kenya's national security and questioned why nations sharing borders with the troubled country were not willing to intervene.
“ODM urges the Ruto regime to reconsider this offer. We call upon Members of Parliament to oppose the deployment of our men and women in uniform to Haiti should the matter be brought before Parliament,” said Mr Sifuna.
“Indeed, given the current security challenges around Sondu, Lamu, the North Rift, along the border with Somalia and within the islands of Lake Victoria, only a truly insensitive and reckless government would deploy 1,000 police officers elsewhere. A poor man’s philanthropy will always raise eyebrows,” he said.
He noted that previous interventions in Haiti by some of the more powerful nations have all ended in disaster.
“There is therefore no gainsaying the fact that the breakdown of law and order, or the instability in Haiti, are not superficial issues that require mere policing. The root causes go deeper than that,” he added.
Without seeking parliamentary approval
He questioned the government's haste in taking such a decision without seeking parliamentary approval.
He noted that the commitment of the officers to Haiti appears to have been made long before approvals of both the United Nations and Kenyan Parliament were sought.
“For some strange reason, the Ruto regime has arbitrarily decided to send, not the military but the police, to Haiti, a country far away in the Western Hemisphere with no strategic geopolitical value to Kenya. In fact, this is not the main worry in this plan shrouded in mystery,” he added.
On Monday, the High Court temporarily stopped the planned deployment until October 24, following a petition filed by Ekuru Aukot's Thirdway Alliance Party and others.
Dr Aukot and Thirdway Alliance chairperson Miruru Waweu filed the petition last Friday, arguing that Kenya's constitution confines police officers to operate within Kenya's borders.
They have also challenged the move, saying there was no request from the Haitian government.
They also say that the constitution does not provide for the deployment of police officers outside Kenya and that there has been no cabinet resolution approving the plan.
In addition, they say, Kenya has not ratified any law or treaty that allows for the deployment of police officers outside the country.
Dr Aukot also accuses President Ruto of planning to deploy police officers outside Kenya at a time when security officers have failed to contain tribal violence in Lamu County, where he says members of one community have been targeted.
