A Kenyan reconnaissance team to Haiti says the local police need retraining to be able to instill law and order.
The team arrived back in Kenya on May 27 after a weeklong tour and embarked on drafting their report on their findings ahead of planned deployment.
Officials said the team had concluded there is an urgent need for retraining of the Haiti police.
Among others, the Haiti police need special squads that can respond to various scenes and contain any threat.
The team participated in an ongoing training of a small team of special squads in Port au Prince and gave a lecture on their expectations.
The special squad is being trained by an American team on the ground and will come in handy when more foreign police officers arrive, officials say.
Teams are identifying translators to be used in the anticipated operations.
They will be used in training, patrols and other operations both in Kenya and Haiti.
More than 1,000 police officers will join other teams in deploying to Haiti to fight gangs terrorizing locals.
Apart from Kenya, other countries that will send officers to Haiti are Chile, Jamaica, Grenada, Paraguay, Burundi, Chad, Nigeria and Mauritius.
The Kenyan teams are from the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), Anti Stock Theft Unit (ASTU), General Service Unit (GSU), and Border Patrol Unit (BPU).
This is a combat-trained team that officials say can handle the situation on the ground professionally.
They have undertaken training in various areas including language.
President William Ruto said the police peacekeeping police force is expected to arrive in Haiti to help quell growing gang violence in about three weeks.
The officers were expected to start arriving before end of May but an advance team on the ground said some logistics are not ready hence the extension by two more weeks.
This means the latest they can arrive there if any is June 15 according to Ruto’s assertion.
In Haiti, anticipation is high that the arrival of foreign forces will help loosen the tight grip of armed gangs that have forced shortages in medications and food, the team found out.
Kenya, which is leading the 2,500-member security force, has agreed with the Haitian government on rules of engagement for the security personnel, who could face fierce opposition from the well-armed Haitian gangs that have taken over the country’s capital and overwhelmed local police.
The delegation led by Deputy Inspector General of Administration Police Noor Gabow met with the seven members of the Transitional Presidential Council, which is exercising the functions of the office of the president until such a time as a new president is elected and inaugurated.
They also met local police commanders for talks and a way forward.
They established there is a need to retrain some of the police officers in Haiti on various issues including combat, law and policing.
And as part of the agreement, at least 2,000 Haiti police officers will fly to Kenya for training.
The middle and lower cadre officers will be flown to Kenya for a short training on law, combat and other policing matters before they go back to their country for deployment, it was agreed.
Sources said the team identified key places the more than 2,5000 police officers will be deployed in Haiti when they land there.
Sources aware of the developments said the team agreed with local leadership they will man the main port, airport, main hospital, two main highways and the White House which is the presidential palace.
The Kenyan delegation found that Haiti lacks equipment to accommodate the deployment of police officers.
The Kenyan team found that the country not only lacks armored vehicles to move the foreign troops around, it also faces a deficit of radios and communications equipment.
The mission still needs to procure helicopters to evacuate potential casualties from the country, where dozens of hospitals have been destroyed or looted since February 29, when gangs united to topple the government.
But the officials said they will be fully ready to deploy by mid-June.
By the time the team left Haiti, at least 45 armored personnel carriers had been flown there in readiness for the deployment.
Earlier this month, members of Haiti’s newly installed transitional presidential council, tasked with putting together a new government, wrote to Ruto asking him to deploy Kenyan police.
The cops will serve as the backbone of a force that will include officers from at least six different countries from Africa, the Caribbean and southern Asia.
Ruto confirmed a planning team had met local police in Haiti to secure arrangements before the Kenyan troops are deployed.
Ruto's 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.
