A delegation of Kenyan officials arrived in Haiti on Monday afternoon as part of an assessment team to inspect their constructed base and airport.
The delegation, which landed onboard a Sunrise Airways flight is expected to be in Haiti through the week and has several meetings planned including with the United Nations Integrated Office in Port-au-Prince, officials said.
Deputy Inspector General of Administration Police Noor Gabow is leading the delegation that visited Port au Prince last year for planning and reconnaissance.
Gabow will serve as the Force Commander of the Multinational Security Support Mission and has already arrived in the gang violence-hit Caribbean country.
Both US and Kenyan officials have refused to officially discuss details of their plans, fearful that Haiti’s gangs — whose deadly rampage through Port-au-Prince forced the international community to expedite the force deployment — could be storing ammunition in preparation for a fight.
Officials said the first contingent from Kenya is expected to be about 200 police officers and support staff.
A contingent in Jamaica is also on standby awaiting deployment orders, the Miami Herald reported.
The U.S. Defense Department has landed more than 37 flights in Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince since late April, local media said.
Kenyan troops will be used to guard the airport and other installations.
The airport, along with the neighbouring Guy Malary domestic airport, had been shuttered to commercial and regular flights since armed gangs launched their attacks on February 29 against state institutions.
On Monday, Toussaint Louverture International Airport officially resumed operations, with an Amerijet touching down with cargo from Miami, and a local carrier, Sunrise Airways, receiving passengers for a Miami-bound flight scheduled to depart at 2:30 pm.
It remains the only airline operating out of Haiti’s main international airport for now. US-based airlines are not expected to resume operations until later this month or early June.
So far, six countries have formally told the U.N. Security Council they will provide personnel to the Multinational Security Support mission.
The UN on Monday also confirmed that a trust fund set up to finance the mission has received a new contribution: $3 million from Spain.
The donation now brings the fund’s total to $21 million. As President Ruto engages with his host, Joe Biden, at the White House, officials said the focus of their discussions, amid the customary fanfare and diplomatic formalities, will centre squarely on Haiti.
Haiti's enforcement mission holds significant strategic importance for Washington.
Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Singoei said Sunday that Kenya will deploy the police to Haiti in a few days.
“I can tell you for sure that deployment will happen in few days or few weeks but there is no chance at all for President Ruto to go down to Port au Prince as has been alleged,” he said.
The advance team will pave the way for the deployment of the first group of about 200 police officers in the coming days, officials said. This came amid reports civilian contractors have prepared for the arrival of Kenyan forces, whose deployment is currently in the works.
The barracks to be used by the Kenyan team have already been constructed. Apart from Kenya, other countries that will send officers to Haiti are; Chile, Jamaica, Grenada, Paraguay, Burundi, Chad, Nigeria and Mauritius. Kenya which will lead the team to combat the gangs plans to deploy more than 1,000 officers to Haiti to help in the mission.
The Kenyan teams are from the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), Anti Stock Theft Unit (ASTU), General Service Unit (GSU), and Border Patrol Unit (BPU).
Ruto first pledged 1,000 police officers in July 2023 to lead an international force to assist Haiti's national police, pending his government's security assessment and a mandate from the U.N. Security Council, which was given in October.
Since then, however, the initiative has faced one obstacle after another, from court challenges and judicial blocks in Nairobi to funding holds in Congress to the March 11 forced resignation of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Though the court challenges appear to have been cleared, the initiative still lacks the proper funding.
Republican lawmakers in Congress have ignored a request by the State Department to release $40 million of the $100 million it has pledged to support the mission.
Haiti's transitional ruling council, which is leading the Caribbean nation following the resignation of its prime minister amid a wave of gang violence, chose politician Edgard Leblanc Fils as its head on April 30.
Leblanc Fils, a former Senate president, will have a coordinating role within the nine-member governing body as it attempts to restore a semblance of order.
The new council came to power as the unpopular and unelected prime minister Ariel Henry submitted his formal resignation last week.
Henry had promised in March to step down once a council was installed after armed gangs rose up and demanded his ouster.
One of the council's first tasks will be to appoint a new prime minister. Haiti has no functioning parliament and has not had a president since the assassination of Jovenel Moise in 2021.