The United Nations Police Adviser and the Director of the Police Division,
Department of Peacekeeping Operations, UN Headquarters New York Faisal Shahkar
spent the better part of last week in Nairobi and met senior officials.
This comes amid a push to turn Kenya's police-led Haiti mission into a
UN operation.
He visited various training camps where the police being sent to
Haiti were trained.
Among others, Shahkar met Inspector General of Police Douglas
Kanja and Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Singoei.
Kanja said during their discussion which focused on previous and
current bilateral engagements, support for Pre- Deployment Training for
National Police Service and opportunities for Formed Police Units training and
deployment preparations, Shahkar commended Kenya for being a major police
contributing country to peace-keeping missions and Peace Support Operations.
Kanja appreciated the UN for the support extended to Kenyan peacekeepers enabling them to operate successfully, and reaffirmed the commitment of NPS to continue with its contribution to UN peacekeeping missions.
Shahkar was accompanied by Ersin Zafer Police Reforms Adviser- UN Police
Standing Capacity in Brindisi Italy.
The visit comes in the wake of a push by various parties to transform the mission into a formal U.N. peacekeeping
operation.
The US has asked the U.N. Security
Council to transform the mission into a formal U.N. peacekeeping operation,
which would guarantee funding through members’ assessed contributions and allow
the force to expand and get the needed equipment.
The
visit is seen as part of efforts to ensure the process goes on to the end.
The
Multinational
Security Support (MSS) mission, headquartered in Port-au-Prince, is an international
operation led by Kenya and authorized by the United Nations Security Council to
assist the Haiti National Police in restoring peace, law and order amid threats
of criminal gangs and violence.
There
are now 600 Kenyan police officers in Haiti.
There
are currently also police and military officers from Jamaica, along with
soldiers from The Bahamas, Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Their
presence boosts the total number of foreign security personnel to just under
800.
