This year alone, Gang violence in Haiti has claimed over 530 lives and 167 in the past two weeks alone. This shows the state of seriousness that the kenyan forces are getting into. The police deployment to Haiti has been confirmed.
The state of Haiti has experienced years of violence and lawlessness due to corrupt leadership thus encouraging a state of terror in Haiti
The UN Security council voted to deploy kenyan forces to Haiti for a peace keeping mission. Kenya will lead a multi-national security force in a bid to restore order and normalcy in Haiti. But what’s in for them?
Kenya has offered to send a total of 1000 police officers and there is a clear doubt on the ability of these officers to succeed where most have failed. Dr Alfred Mutua, the foreign Minister has supported the deployment saying he is confident that the Kenyan police will succeed
Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince has the highest concentration of violence with the political class willing to do everything within their means to cling to power
The gangs are armed with automatic weapons smuggled mostly from the US and has in most cases outgunned the local police, setting their vehicles and stations up in flames.
Also Read: Reasons Why Haiti Mission Is Important To Kenya- President Ruto
The US has pledged to support the mission with fund s of up to $100M with Canada also chipping in to offer funding to facilitate police deployment to Haiti.
Language barrier has raised alot of questions on how the kenyan police will deal with locals as Haiti people speak mainly in French and Haitian Creole while in Kenya, the language that is predominantly spoken is English and Swahili.
Terrain is also a major concern as Kenyan police will face the gang in an unfamiliar terrain with the gang controlling major routes in and out of the capital
Nelson Koech, the Chairman of Parliamentary Defence Committee said that they’ll not be sending traffic officers but a specially trained forces that will be fully trained before being deployed