- The forces marked two months on August 25 in Haiti since deployment.
- The officers are worried that the mission could fast lose public confidence.
In addition to pay delays, police officers deployed to Haiti claim they have never set their foot to frontline areas due to lack of necessary equipment.
Senior officers who spoke to the Star anonymously, claimed they have mainly been in their camps, and have only been deployed to occasionally man key installations or guard a convoy of VIPs in the gang-ruled Caribbean country.
The forces marked two months on August 25 in Haiti since deployment.
It is this situation that has seen some locals develop impatience with the Kenyan-led mission.
They are dismissing them as tourists who are shying away from engaging the criminals.
“The mission will start after we have received necessary equipment. Since we came here, we do not have the necessary facilitation and equipment to go to the field, especially in the frontlines to execute our mandate substantively,” one officer said.
Another officer of senior rank and with credible knowledge of decision-making dynamics, said the mission will start soon because there are promises that the equipment will soon reach them.
“The communities here call us tourists and there is some credence to their concern. We have been here basically doing nothing, only making movements that are public relations in nature. But there are promises that keys boxes will be ticked to enable us begin operations soon,” he said.
The officers are worried that the mission could fast lose public confidence, and suffer the safe fate that befell Kenyan military forces in DRC’s Goma, when they were deployed under the now defunct Eacraf.
The local Congolese population lost confidence in the Kenya-led mission.
They accused them of being tourists when they adopted strategy of avoiding direct confrontation with the rebel forces.
The forces were eventually withdrawn unceremoniously.
“There is apprehension among the ranks [of the police officers] because the intelligence streaming to us shows the public is becoming impatient by the day. They think we are not the help that they were promised,” the officer said.
Countries supporting the mission like the US and France have tried to supply some hardware equipment including ambush-resistant armoured vehicles.
But the sources who spoke to the Star say they are hardly enough to mount a credible offence.
The French government delivered 24 APC with turrets at the National Port in Haiti while the USA government gave two more Maxxpros with turrets.
Police Spokeswoman Resila Onyango was not available to comment on the officers' claims as she did not respond to calls nor text messages.
This is as the government had to quickly respond to reports that the officers have not been paid their monthly dues.
Police bosses in Nairobi however, promised to remit them by August 27.
Vigilance House says that while the officers are drawing their regular monthly pay unhindered, their allowance from MSSM was outstanding.
MSSM is supported by partner institutions and the UN and is anchored on the human rights due diligence policy and trust fund.
It is served by voluntary donor countries including the US.
“NPS officers continue to draw their salaries and processing of their MSSM deployment allowances has also been finalised,” acting IG Gilbert Masengeli said.
With the promise of the Wednesday payment, the fund promised that they have regularised the remittance of the allowances going forward.
“The process for the disbursement of salaries to the MSSM officers' accounts has been finalised. It is expected that the same will soon be reflected in their bank accounts in the course of this week,” a statement from the mission said.
“Going forward, elaborate mechanism has been put in place where payments will be promptly done at the end of the month.”
Each of the officers in the mission is supposed to get at least Sh100,000 above the salaries that they get as police officers in Kenya.