‘An excellent development,’ Haiti says of Kenya’s offer to deploy 1,000 police to help

The government of Kenya says it is ready to lead a multinational force into violence-torn Haiti and send 1,000 police officers to help the Caribbean nation deal with its deteriorating security landscape.

The offer, made public Saturday by the African nation’s foreign ministry, is being welcomed by the Haitian government, which called it “an excellent development.”

“We have witnessed with much concern the worsening of the security situation due to the continuing criminal actions of gangs,” Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Victor Généus said. “We welcome the declaration of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kenya. We greatly appreciate the support and solidarity of our brothers and sisters from Africa, the motherland. We stand ready to welcome and work with the assessment team from Kenya.”

In a statement posted by Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua, the Kenyan government said the African nation is committed to deploying the contingent of its police officers to help train and assist Haiti’s national police force combat violent gangs. The consideration of leading such an endeavor, the ministry said, comes at the request of Friends of Haiti Group of Nations.

“Kenya stands with persons of African descent across the world, including those in the Caribbean, and aligns with the African Union’s diaspora policy and our own commitment to Pan Africanism, and in this case to “reclaiming of the Atlantic crossing,” the statement said.

The offer is being welcomed by others as well. Dominican President Luis Abinader, who has been calling on the international community to help with the crisis in neighboring Haiti, said while visiting Puerto Plata Saturday that he will continue to advocate for more support beyond Kenya’s welcomed offer.

State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who just wrapped up a tour of the Pacific, spoke by phone Saturday to Kenyan President William Ruto about “Kenya’s positive consideration of leading a multinational force in Haiti.”

After a lull in violence and kidnappings by heavily armed gangs in the last two months, Haiti is now seeing a deadly and worrying resurgence that on Thursday prompted the U.S. Department of State to order the evacuation of all non-emergency personnel at its U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, and U.S. citizens in Haiti.

Earlier in the week, dozens of Haitian families had sought refuge in front of the embassy after armed gang members invaded their nearby neighborhood in Tabarre. The crowd was forced off the embassy’s compound by Haitian police, using tear gas. Outside of the capital, another gang also attacked the population and set fire to an independent police station.

In addition to the violence, a number of for ransom kidnappings were also reported. The victims include Dr. Reynold Grand Pierre, a prominent gynecologist and the director of family health at the Ministry of Public Health and Population; and a New Hampshire woman and her child.

Alix Dorsainvil, a community health nurse, and her child were abducted Thursday morning from the El Roi Haiti’s campus near Port-au-Prince, the organization said. The kidnapping happened on the same day the State Department updated its travel advisory for Haiti and told Americans to leave due to the gang violence and kidnappings.

While Haiti’s beleaguered police force has managed to make inroads against gangs, they’ve struggled to maintain control of areas once they move in. The force also numbers roughly 3,500 on security duty on any one day throughout the country. Last week, during a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing on the response to the security situation in Haiti, Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio noted that “you have a significant percentage of the national police, are applicants, currently waiting for the parole program that the Biden administration has created.”

“That’s never a good sign when the people that’s supposed to be doing [security] believe their best option is to leave the country,” Rubio said.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Brian A. Nichols, who testified during the hearing, told the committee that the administration continues to consult with countries about the situation in Haiti is speaking with “potential contributors to a multinational force, which we consider the fastest deploying solution, and specifically responsive to the request from the Haitian government as we contemplate other solutions that could include some type of peacekeeping operation in the future.”

“But we believe it’s urgent to get forces on the ground that could support the Haitian national police as they carry out missions specifically targeting the gangs that prey on the Haitian people,” Nichols said.

Last year, as a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, which maintains international peace and security, Kenya was vocal about the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Haiti. While calling for “practical proposals,” the country’s representative also pushed for African nations to play more of a leading role in helping a strife-torn Haiti tackle stem the violence, leading to it emerging as a threat to regional peace and security.

An assessment mission staffed by the Kenya Police is scheduled to arrive in Haiti within the next few weeks. “This assessment will inform and guide the mandate and operational requirements of the mission,” Kenya’s government said.

The proposed deployment still needs to be approved by the Security Council, which earlier this month gave Secretary-General António Guterres until August 15 to report back on options to improve the security situation in Haiti, including a possible U.N. peacekeeping force and a non-U.N. multinational force.

Guterres has called for “a robust” force to be sent to Haiti, where armed gangs now control at least 80% of the capital and and are behind an escalation in killings, kidnappings, rape of women and girls, looting, and the forced the displacement of tens of thousands of Haitians.

“Kenya’s proposed deployment will crystallize once a mandate from the U.N. Security Council is obtained and other Kenyan constitutional processes are undertaken,” the East Africa nation’s foreign ministry said.

Also under consideration will be the reaction on the ground in Haiti, where the issue of foreign forces remains divisive though recent polling shows increased support for outside help. Among the discussions already taking place in some Haitian circle is the reputation of the Kenya forces, and if they can have an impact in Haiti. Kenya has participated in peacekeeping operations in neighboring African countries in the past but its police are also not above reproach at home where the force faces accusations of violence and calls for deep reform.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who met with Kenya’s president in Paris last month to discuss support for the Haitian police, first requested help from the international community in October, asking that “a specialized force” be deployed to help his struggling police force. The request was supported by Guterres and the United States, which has a resolution before the Security Council for such a deployment.

But with the Biden administration unwilling to lead a security mission, or field one with its own troops, Washington has had a difficult time getting other countries to raise their hands. The U.S. had hoped Canada would do so, but so far Ottawa has not shown any willingness to do so. In March, its top general, citing his involvement in the war in Ukraine, said he was concerned that his armed forces do not have the capacity to also go into Haiti.

Another country under consideration has been Brazil, which has experience in Haiti and whose military in the past was instrumental in helping foreign police units take on gangs in Port-au-Prince and take back control of gang-controlled areas after the 2004 uprising.

A number of small Caribbean countries like Jamaica, and some police-contributing African nations to the United Nations, Rwanda, in particular, have offered to field a force, should someone else take the lead. The next steps will depend both on Kenya’s assessment and whether the Security Council takes its offer. A confidential document circulating among some U.N. member countries, and obtained by the Miami Herald, spells out much of what is needed in a deployment and makes a strong argument for military, and not just policing, capabilities given the Haitian terrain and expanding prowess of the heavily armed gangs.

Henry himself is also engaging in discussions with members of his government over what kind of force should be deployed, and what its mandate should be: secure strategic assets like roads and the fuel port, or go after the gangs.

During his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee Thursday, Nichols gave an indication on the U.S.’s thinking about the role of a deployed foreign force.

The security reality in Haiti, he said, depended on where one was. In Port-au-Prince, the capital, the security situation is “extremely bad” and requires “urgent assistance,” Nichols told U.S. senators.

“Other parts of the country, the situation is substantially better,” he said. “A force need to provide security around key infrastructure sites....so the Haitian national police can interact with the populace and provide security. We also need to grow the police force in tandem with the deployment of a multinational force.”