Thirdway Alliance party leader Ekuru Aukot has asked the Judiciary to intervene and charge the government for allegedly going against court orders that blocked the deployment of some 1,000 police officers to Haiti for a peacekeeping mission.
In an urgent application filed before the Milimani Law Courts, Aukot wants the court to implore top government and security officials to explain why they should not be punished and committed to civil jail for a period of six months for defying the orders issued by Justice Chacha Mwita on January 26.
Mwita had on the said date prohibited the deployment of police officers to Haiti or any other country. He said the National Security Council has no constitutional or legal mandate to deploy the National Police Service outside Kenya under Article 240 (8) or any other law.
The said article does not mandate the Security Council to deploy police officers outside Kenya. Deployment according to the Judge should be as provided for in Part XIV of the National Police Service Act and only to a reciprocating country. The said Act provides how the service may be deployed outside the country, when and by whom.
Aukot in his new application alleges that there is no government in place in Haiti capable of giving such a request or signing any bilateral agreement with Kenya for the deployment of police officers to Haiti.
“Ariel Henri who assumed office on July 20 2021 as an acting Prime Minister of Haiti was only required to act as such at most 120 days, which lapsed on November 17 2021 hence he has no legitimacy and cannot purport to sign any agreement with Kenya," Aukot said.
“But the government has purported to sign a reciprocal instrument for the deployment of police officers to Haiti which is in disregard to the court orders."
Aukot explains further that since there is no government in place in Haiti to sign any bilateral agreement with Kenya, no deployment can take place.
“As I have already stated Haiti has neither government nor democratically elected Parliament capable of ratifying an agreement for purposes of deployment,” he said.
He has pleaded with the court to urgently intervene arguing that the deployment ‘may be done any time from now but not later than May 23 hence the urgency of this application."
In July last year, the government announced that it was ready to deploy 1,000 police officers to Haiti to assist in curbing security in the said country. What followed was the UN Security Council passing a resolution approving the deployment of multinational security support to Haiti to be led by Kenya.
The resolution was passed on October 2, 2023. The matter was then challenged in court and subsequent orders were issued stopping the deployment.