Former police officer Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier, and leader of an alliance of armed groups, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 11, 2024. (Inset) Slain Kenyan police officer Benedict Kuria Kabiru.
Talks have been opened with Haitian gangs that have detained the body of a Kenyan police officer, even as the slain officer’s family said the government is yet to notify them about his fate.
A source within the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission told Nation on condition of anonymity that negotiations are underway to ask the gang to release the body of Benedict Kuria Kabiru.
“Every effort is being made with the belief that the gang will make the best decision of releasing the body to MSS. Already, negotiations through several avenues have kicked off,” said the source privy to the matter.
Nation learnt that the gang holding the body is Viv Ansanm (Living Together), which is led by Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier, a former Haitian police officer.
A picture of Benedict Kabiru Kuria, a police officer who went missing in Haiti is displayed during an interview at his home in Thamande, Kikuyu on March 27, 2025.
A special team is also exploring the retrieval of the body of Kabiru, who died during a gang ambush at the Artibonite Department of the Pont-Sonde Area.
It was only four months to the end of his assignment in Haiti. In Kenya, Kabiru served in northern Kenya under BPU (Border Patrol Unit).
The Kenyan police contingent is leading the MSS mission that also draws officers from Jamaica, Belize, Bahamas, Guatemala, El Salvador and Haiti.
Approved by the United Nations, the mission to restore peace in Haiti is commanded by Kenyan Godfrey Otunge.
Only the Haitian government has publicly announced that the officer had died following an ambush by the gang.
In a statement last week, Haiti’s interim President Fritz Alphonse Jean praised Kabiru as a courageous officer who gave his life in the struggle for a more secure Haiti.
But in Kenya, Kabiru’s family in Kiambu said by Saturday, they had not been formally informed about the fate of their son by the Kenyan government.
Mr Kabiru’s brother, Mr Philip Kamau, said that although they had dedicated Sunday, March 30, to pray over the current situation, they hoped to get a different message from the Kenyan government.
“We are yet to be informed of anything by the Kenyan government but already we are seeing through other news channels and social media that my brother is no more,” Mr Kamau, the only brother to the officer, told Nation on Saturday.
He said that efforts by the family since last week, when news broke that an officer had gone missing and a disturbing video surfaced online, to get authorities to shed light have not been successful.
“I honestly do not want to hear something like my brother is no more. I have seen it being reported that he is dead, but maybe the Kenyan government might be having a different message for us,” Mr Kamau said.
Benedict Kabiru Kuria's mother, Jacinta Wanjiku (left), and his wife, Miriam Kabiru, display his picture during the interview at their home in Thamande, Kikuyu on March 27, 2025.
Mr Kabiru’s mother, Ms Jacinta Wanjiku, last week said she was hopeful her son was okay despite not having communicated with them since it was reported that a Kenyan officer had gone missing following an attack.
Ms Wanjiku, a widow, described her son as a man who had great dreams for the entire family.
“My son always asked us to be united and work as a team. Even while he was away in Haiti, he ensured that we spoke almost daily,” Ms Wanjiku said last week.
For the family, March has been tragic, for Ms Wanjiku revealed that she also lost her husband in March 2019.
According to MSS spokesperson Jack Ombaka, the officer was captured by militia during an ambush after a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle he was in broke down.
He was in a contingent tasked with rescuing a group of Haitian counterparts whose vehicle had got stuck in a ditch suspected to have been dug by gang members.
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