Photo Credit: Associated Press
Kenya President William Ruto says his peacekeeping police force is expected to arrive in Haiti to help quell growing gang violence in about three weeks. In an interview, Mr Ruto confirmed a planning team was already in Haiti and had met local police to secure arrangements before the Kenyan troops were deployed.
Mr Ruto comments came as he concluded a three-day trip to Washington DC, the first official state visit of any African leader to the US in over 15 years. During his trip, the White House called for the swift deployment of the Kenyan-led multinational force, after a US couple was named among three missionaries killed in Haiti on Friday.
I have a team already in Haiti as I speak to you, Mr Ruto said on Friday. That will give us a frame of what things look like on the ground, the capabilities that are available, the infrastructure that has been set up. He added: Once we have that assessment that we agreed with the Haitian
police and the Haitian leadership, we are looking at the horizon of between three weeks and there about for us to be ready to deploy, once everything on the ground is set.
Last year, Kenya offered to lead a UN-backed multinational security force to restore order to the Caribbean island. Gangs have taken over much of Haiti, bringing violence and destruction to its besieged capital, Port-au-Prince in the wake of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.
On Friday, two US missionaries were killed in Haiti by gangs. Mr Ruto said that these types of events are exactly why his country was preparing to send in its police force. We shouldn't be losing people. We shouldn't be losing missionaries, he said. We are doing this to stop more people from losing their lives to gangs.
The US is also a part of the multi-national coalition working with Kenya.The security situation in Haiti cannot wait, said a National Security Council
spokesperson on Friday. They said President Joe Biden pledged to support the expedited deployment of the force in his talks with President Ruto. Mr Ruto said that a base where troops and equipment will be kept - being built in conjunction with the US - is about 70% complete
