Kenya’s police officers ready to deploy in violence-stricken Haiti in ‘few days, few weeks’

Hundreds of Kenyan police officers have been training since late last year as the East African country is preparing to dispatch them as the first wave of a UN-backed multinational force aimed at stabilizing the chaos-ridden Caribbean nation of Haiti.
Kenyan police will deploy to Haiti, a country of 11.6 million people, “in the next few days, few weeks,” Korir Sing’Oei, the country’s principal secretary for foreign affairs, told reporters, to lead a UN-backed multinational mission aimed at tackling gang violence. Hundreds of Kenyan police officers who had been training for months are now ready to join the force tasked with quelling gang-fueled lawlessness on the Caribbean island at a time when well-armed gangs have taken control most of the capital Port-au-Prince. The officers have reportedly not yet been given a precise date but anticipated that they would arrive in Haiti later this month. According to The Global Initiative, the first wave of 200 police officers are now expected to arrive in Haiti on 23-24 May, timed to coincide with a state visit by the Kenyan president to the United States.
Kenya pledged almost a year ago to deploy up to 1,000 personnel to Haiti, an offer welcomed by the United States and other nations that had ruled out putting their own forces on the ground. The deployment has divided the East African nation from the onset, with fierce debates in parliament and among officials, with the courts seeking to block the deployment, and strongly-worded opposition by activists and human rights groups. But the plan received unwavering support from its main champion, the country’s President William Ruto, who said responding to the worsening crisis in Haiti was a call to “serve humanity.”