Haiti’s Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, will soon visit Kenya in a bid to sort out issues that have stalled the deployment of Kenyan police officers to the troubled country.
This was revealed by Mr. Henry’s Office on February 25 which said that the Prime Minister will, after attending the 46th Ordinary Meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
Heads of State and Government in Guyana, visit Nairobi. The Meeting will end today (February 28, 2024).
“Next, the Prime Minister will travel to Nairobi, Kenya, to finalize modalities for the deployment of the MSS with Kenyan authorities and those of other countries in the African continent,” a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Mr Henry is expected to meet top security officers in Kenya to discuss and sign agreements before the deployment of the officers to Haiti. This comes a few months after a team from Haiti visited Kenya to hold discussions over the same matter.
The 1,000 troops expected to be sent to Haiti are teams from the Rapid Deployment Unit, Anti Stock Theft Unit, General Service Unit, and Border Patrol Unit. Some two weeks ago, Haiti announced that it is working on an official agreement with Kenyan officials to secure the long-awaited deployment.
Earlier this week, the United States Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced that Benin will also be contributing 2,000 troops to assist in the multinational security force approved by the UN to curb gang violence in the Caribbean country. Kenya will be leading the process.
She added that the deployment has to be soon with cases of violence increasing in Haiti where at least 300 gangs control a larger part of the capital and accounted for 83 percent of killings and injuries recorded last year. At least 8,400 people were killed by the gangs last year.
