Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua has exuded confidence that Kenyan police who are awaiting deployment to Haiti to battle gang warfare will get the job done despite warnings by analysts that it won’t be a walk in the park.
Kenya has offered to send 1000 police officers whose deployment Mutua says is expected latest January next year upon approval by the United Nations Security Council in two or three weeks' time.
Mutua who downplayed fears by analysts that the Kenyan troops may find the going tough considering previous UN peacekeeping missions failed, said Kenyan troops are built differently.
“We don’t think there’s going to be a lot of violence because these gangs are powerful because they don’t have anybody who can match them. They have guns and they are well armed but they don’t have a well-ironed team to match them,” he said during an interview with the BBC on Tuesday.
“I think people are right to be skeptical because other missions have failed before, people have said been there, done that. But those were UN peacekeeping missions, this is a different mission,” he added.
Organised gangs have ravaged large swathes of Haiti with violent crimes such as rape, kidnappings, and robberies topping their mode of operation, particularly over the last two years.
The groups became more emboldened after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021, by suspected foreign mercenaries at his residence in the capital Port-au-Prince.
The assassination came over two years after the United Nations' long‑standing peacekeeping presence in Haiti closed its doors on October 15, 2019, eroding strides toward security restoration by foreign troops.
Mutua, however, said the Kenyan troops have a higher success rate compared to their predecessors as they have the support of the Haitian people who have had enough of the gangs.
“There is an uprising currently going on in Haiti, people are saying enough is enough. A recent poll was conducted and 80 per cent of Haitians said they want Kenya to go and lead the force.”
The CS said Kenya sent an assessment team to Haiti and far from expected, realized that the mission would require more than manning installations.
He said the Kenyan police will go in as an intervention force to disarm the thugs, free kidnapped people, and stop them from raping women.
He said Kenya’s other mandate will be to build capacity for the Haiti army by training their police force.
In a press statement on Tuesday, Mutua said Kenya will receive $100 million (Sh14.7 billion) from the United States of America in support of the mission.