After long wait, Kenyan police begin security mission in Haiti

Kenyan security forces arrive at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince on June 25, 2024. The Kenyan forces begin a high-stakes mission to restore order in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation. The first batch of police officers landed in Port-au-Prince on a state carrier Kenya Airways plane just as violence also gripped Nairobi during mass protests triggered by tax hikes. Agence France-Presse

PORTA-AU-PRINCE — Kenyan police arrived in violence-ravaged Haiti on Tuesday on a long-awaited mission to help wrest the Caribbean nation from powerful gangs, just as Nairobi saw its own deadly turmoil during mass protests.

Wearing camouflage uniforms, helmets and rifles, about 200 officers descended from a Kenya Airways plane on the tarmac in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. More are expected Thursday.

A total of some 2,500 personnel are anticipated, led by Kenya with contributions from a number of countries, mostly in Africa and the Caribbean, on a mission blessed but not managed by the United Nations.

READ: Kenya force leaves Nairobi to tackle gang violence in Haiti

Garry Conille, Haiti’s acting prime minister in a new transitional government, said that the troops offered a “unique opportunity” to finally end the overlapping crises in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.

US President Joe Biden, who has promised generous funding for the mission but ruled out sending American troops, hailed the arrival of the Kenyans as “beginning an effort that will bring much needed relief to Haitians.”

“The people of Haiti deserve to feel safe in their homes, build better lives for their families and enjoy democratic freedoms,” Biden said in a statement.

Kenyan President William Ruto had ceremonially seen the police off Monday in Nairobi, in what he described as a “historic” mission of solidarity.

READ: Kenyan police to deploy to Haiti within weeks–Ruto

But Kenya itself became engulfed in violence a day later, with protesters breaching parliament and a fire erupting at the governor’s office.

Renewing the questions raised by rights groups on how Kenyan forces will handle Haiti’s unrest, NGOs said that police fired live rounds in Nairobi, leaving at least five dead and dozens wounded.

The violence quickly escalated from protests, mostly led by young people, triggered by tax hikes proposed by the cash-strapped government.

Asked if the violence in Nairobi prompted concerns for the Haiti mission, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the United States and other nations have “vetted the Kenyan personnel” and emphasized the importance of human rights.

Ruto had gone ahead with the Haiti mission despite a court case from a small opposition party which accused him of doing the bidding of the United States.

The multinational force, approved last year by the UN Security Council, had already been on hold for months after a Kenyan court asked the government to secure a bilateral government with Haiti.

Hopes for stability

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also welcomed the deployment, while calling on the international community to underwrite the costs of the mission.

“He appeals to all member states to ensure that the mission receives the financial support he needs to successfully implement its mandate,” Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a briefing Tuesday.

Washington has pledged up to $360 million for the mission but rejected sending troops to Haiti, which has a long history of US intervention.

Biden ended America’s longest war in Afghanistan and is seeking reelection boasting that, for the first time in more than two decades, US troops are not in combat.

The US president welcomed Ruto for a rare state visit to Washington last month in which he hailed Kenya as a key US partner on democracy and security, praising its efforts in Haiti and also other hotspots including neighboring Somalia.

Other countries that have expressed willingness to join the mission include Benin, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados and Chad.

Haiti has long been rocked by gang violence but conditions sharply worsened at the end of February when armed groups launched coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince, saying they wanted to overthrow then-prime minister Ariel Henry.

Henry announced in early March that he would step down and hand over executive power to a transitional council, which named Conille as the country’s interim prime minister on May 29.

The violence in Port-au-Prince has affected food security and humanitarian aid access, with much of the city in the hands of gangs accused of abuses including murder, rape, looting and kidnappings.