Kenya intends to lead a multi-national security force in Haiti to combat gang warfare, president William Ruto has said.
However, residents of both countries are skeptical about the idea and so are questioning the plan that is being pushed by the United States government.
President Ruto spoke Wednesday September 20, 2023 at a ceremony establishing diplomatic ties with the Caribbean nation, also attended by Haiti’s prime minister Ariel Henry, who had requested the deployment of such a force a year ago.
Gangs have overpowered Haitian police, with experts estimating they now control some 80 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, since the July 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moïse.
The violence has displaced nearly 200,000 Haitians whose homes have been razed down, while schools in some areas have closed in fear of warring gangs which are raping women and killing people.
“As the leading nation in the UN-backed security mission in Haiti, we are committed to deploying a specialized team to comprehensively assess the situation and formulate actionable strategies that will lead to long-term solutions,” Ruto said.
The United States has praised Kenya for considering leading the United Nations-backed force while other countries hesitated, and it is drafting a UN Security Council resolution authorizing it even as Bahamas and Jamaica offer to support the force.
Kenya sent an assessment team to Haiti weeks ago with the idea of deploying 1,000 of its police. It is not clear what the government of Kenya is being offered in exchange for leading the force. There are only about 10,000 police officers in Haiti for more than 11 million people.
However, questions abound on the Kenyan police’s ability to lead a multinational deployment, considering they have long been accused by watchdogs of deadly force, torture and other abuses.
“In the past year we have witnessed a wave of punitive policing during protests, extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, deliberate torture of children, interference with investigative authorities and other violations.” The Independent Medico-Legal Unit said in a report this month.
The watchdog group, which works with medical and legal experts, said it documented 482 cases of torture, extrajudicial killings and other violations between October 1, 2022, and August 31 of this year, more than double the number in a similar period the year before under former president Uhuru Kenyatta.
This is an alarming rise in police abuses, especially against young adults, under president Ruto, who had vowed to protect urban youth from police violence, the group said.
The group criticized what it termed statements that commend law enforcement violations and issuance of shoot-to-kill orders, saying it worsen an already critical situation.
Inspector General of Police Japheth Koome is on record claiming that dead bodies were planted to accuse officers of using excessive force during recent anti-government protests, which rights groups said left dozens of demonstrators dead.
Police are also refusing to report all deaths and injuries to the government-created watchdog and even refuse to record complaints from victims, the group added.
According to the United Nations, 1,860 people were reported killed, injured or kidnapped in Haiti from April to June, a 14 per cent increase compared with the first three months of the year.
An ex-police officer considered by many to be Haiti’s most powerful gang leader — Jimmy Chérizier, known as “Barbecue” — has warned he would fight any international force deployed to the country if it committed any abuses.