Kenya to send more police to Haiti

Kenyan Prime Minister William Ruto has pledged to send another 600 police officers to Haiti in the coming weeks, despite concerns that their UN-approved mission to rein in rampant gangs has been largely ineffective so far.

Announcing the move during a visit to the Caribbean nation on 21 September, Ruto claimed that Haiti’s security has “significantly improved” since the deployment – from June – of some 400 Kenyan police to the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission.

Others don’t agree, however.

Benin, which was supposed to send up to 2,000 soldiers and police officers – the only French-speaking contingent envisaged in the force – delayed its deployment while expressing concerns about the nature of the mission.

At the end of his own visit, William O’Neill, an independent UN human rights expert on Haiti, pointed out that less than a quarter of the planned force – which also features two dozen Jamaican personnel – has been deployed despite its mandate expiring in early October.

“The equipment it has received is inadequate, and its resources are insufficient,” while the Haitian National Police continue to lack the “logistical and technical capacity to counter the gangs”, he said.

The United States, which has been the country largely bankrolling the mission, is reportedly looking at the possibility of transitioning the MSS mission into a UN peacekeeping force.

But Haitians have long memories of failed foreign interventions: The last UN force, MINUSTAH, was accused of widespread human rights abuses and of introducing a deadly cholera epidemic into the country before it ended its 15-year deployment in 2019.

More than 578,000 Haitians – out of a population of 11.5 million – have been displaced as the gangs have gained control of more and more territory since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, which set off a period of even greater insecurity.

The unrest makes it harder for aid groups to assist those in need in Haiti, where almost half the population is grappling with food insecurity, and where the lack of access in places like Cité Soleil – a notoriously violent part of the capital – has left some on the brink of famine.

The UN-approved stabilisation mission was tasked with helping the interim government to restore order and pave the way for elections – the first since 2016 – by early 2026. To that end, an electoral council was created last week.

Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille has also highlighted the shortcomings of the measures taken since the beginning of the transition.

“The Haitian crisis – its security, humanitarian, social, economic, and political dimensions – was grossly underestimated,” he said in opening remarks this week to the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). “We need more sophisticated weapons, greater resources, and more extensive training for our forces to respond sustainably to this threat, which at times resembles a civil war.”

Women and girls have been paying a particularly high price for Haiti’s dysfunction. For more on what might be done to help them, read: