Some four hundred members of Kenya’s National Police Service clad in full battle military gear with combat helmets and armed with AK-47 Kalashnikov automatic rifles arrived in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on June 25th 2024.
A day prior, the elite security force had received Kenya’s President’s, William Rutto farewell bid message at a ceremony held at the local Police Academy in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. Moments later, the troops would be driven to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to board the ferry flight that would depart for Haiti that evening.
The Kenya Airways Boeing 787-8 which had been chartered for the occasion had necessitated a brief refuelling stop in Dakar Senegal before initiating the crossing of the Atlantic ocean’s portion seperating Africa’s west coast from the Caribbean. Arriving in Port-Au-Prince Toussaint Louverture International Airport, the Kenyan troops seemingly looked ready to immediately undertake their perilous mission of bringing order to the small nation where criminal gang violence has for years, rendered the state powerless in administrating law, order and the country.
The assassination of Prime Minister Jovenel Moise at his residence in July of 2021 had proved a lasting blow to the country’s law enforcement apparatus until a recent spike in street battles between criminal groups finally convinced the international community that decisive action under a International Security Support Mission was needed to get underway immediately.
The four hundred or so Kenyan troops that will now begin deploying officially in Port-Au-Prince and the rest of Haiti will build on the discrete groundlaying work carried out by two small teams that had secretly preceded the larger force, arriving on the ground a few days ago, the web site Haitilibre.com reported. Operating under a United Nation mandate articulated by Security Council resolution 2699, the troops are expected to be reinforced by an additional five hundred troops from Kenya in the coming days before the contingent gradually receive further reinforcements. These would include more than 2,500 security personnels from Benin, Senegal, Burundi, Chile, Barbados, Jamaica, the Seychelles Islands.
Commanded by General Geoffrey Otunge and Noor Gabow Kenya’s Police’s deputy inspector general, the intervention force is facing dangerous missions in Haiti where for years, criminal warlords have sent heavily armed followers battle for control of the city’s neighborhoods. Heavily armed with automatic rifles, the gang members immense firepower finally managed to drive the Haitian National Police off the streets, to the safety of their barracks. Ironically, these past few months, a former Policeman turned warlord Jimmy Cherisier proved the leading voice in denouncing the local government impotence. With his well armed criminal group exerting more pressure in the streets each day, Cherisier actions eventually prompted the international community to act in Haiti.
To their credit, the troops provided by Kenya have for the most part gained tremendous experience battling Shebab islamists militants in neighboring Somalia. In 2012, the Kenyan government decided that army and police units should enter Somalia in order to defeat Shebab militia and help the country’s government restructure itself. This mission coincided with a African Mission mandate that would see security forces from Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Burundi join arms to defeat Shebab and help stabilize Somalia.
