2024-08-16 03:30:00
Getty Images A team of 400 Kenyan police arrived in Haiti in May to combat violence.
Six weeks after setting foot in the Caribbean country, pressure is mounting on Kenyan police officials to fulfill their promise to help train Haitian criminal groups.
When the first group of elite police officers arrived in Port-au-Prince on June 25, they confidently disembarked from their airplanes, put on helmets and armor, carried their weapons, and carried the national flag. Kenyan language is high.
At the airport they sang in their Swahili language while mentally preparing themselves for what was to come. So did the second group of 200 other Kenyan delegates who arrived three weeks later.
“Come on!” and “we live!” were some screams.
There are high hopes that the Kenyan police will provide the much needed power to those in trouble National Police of Haiti (PNH)that they have to fight in order to bring trouble to the illegal groups that have terrorized Port-au-Prince and other large areas in the country for more than three years.
The Kenyans are a United Nations peacekeeping mission seeking to restore peace to Haiti.
At first they were well received by the Haitian government leaders and also by many media in the Caribbean country.
In fact, Independiente FM radio broadcast on X (Twitter) a welcome message in the national language, Creole, to Kenyans:
“Haiti is the country of all Africans. As you are black, Haiti is your home… You, the Kenyan soldiers, are at home and should be welcome to help fight the these destructive people (groups) who prevent us from living in our country.”
However, weeks after the long-awaited implementation, which has already been delayed by legal challenges in Kenya and logistical problems, many Haitians seem sad and worried because the power has not acted more quickly and decisively against the gangs, their leaders and their known hideouts.
Getty Images UN experts warned earlier this year that gangs have more firepower than Haiti’s police.
Sadness
In the Haitian media and social networks, expressions of sadness are increasing, showing impatience and frustration.
We have heard calls for “actions, not words” and “concrete results.”
Some of the harshest critics accuse Kenyans of “theatrics” and of being mere “tourists”.
Critics point out that despite Kenyan and Haitian police patrolling the church in Port-au-Prince, where they exchanged gunfire with suspected gang members, It seems that gangs have consolidated their control on the south-west and north-east areas of the capital since the Kenyan mission began.
Gang members attacked, burned or destroyed some police stations and continued to attack the main roads leading out of the capital and inside.
There are those who feel that Kenyan power is too late to make its presence felt.
“What are Kenyans waiting to do against the terrorists?”asked local media AyiboPost in an article published on X (Twitter) on July 11, 15 days after the landing of the East Africans.
About two weeks later, the online news website Le Filet Info asserted: “The Kenyan police presence in the country has failed to deter thieves.”
“They continue to kill members of the public,” he added.
Getty Images Hundreds of thousands of Haitians have been forced to leave their homes due to violence.
tests
The Kenyan delegation suffered their first accident since arriving in Haiti.
On July 30, a police officer from this country received a gunshot wound to the shoulder in Port-au-Prince when his police car collided with gang members.
On the same day, the Haitian police chief, Rameau Normilwith the captain of Kenya, Godfrey Otungetry to deal with negative comments from the local media.
Now, both announced that more than 100 “terrorists” were killed in the operations carried out under the state of emergency that was declared in the areas of the most insurgents in the middle of July.
However, the authorities have failed to end the public’s doubts.
Trust is not improved by the online publication of those videos showed high-ranking Haitian officials escorted by police and rushed out of the General Hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince on July 29, amid gunfire.
Both the Haitian and Kenyan police have said that this company – which was abandoned – remains firmly under their control.
Despite these protests, Haiti’s current president, Garry Conilletold the BBC’s HardTalk program that he welcomes support, due to the shortage of police officers in Haiti.
“We need help… but it is coming slowly and Haitians are getting impatient.he admitted.
The Prime Minister also criticized the deployment and “heavy hand” of Kenyan government officials in the face of the recent anti-government conflict in the country.
“Respect for our laws and procedures has been very good and we are very happy with the assistance we are receiving,” he said, stressing that the role of Kenyans is to support and follow the police, not to work independently.
Getty Images Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier is a former police officer who became a gang leader.
dance war
However, the Kenyans have faced a challenge from the leaders of the major Haitian groups.
A few days after the arrival of the first group of Kenyans, Jimmy “Barbecue” ChérizierThe leader of the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) gang, appeared in a nearly eight-minute long video posted on X (Twitter).
In it, he is seen leading his masked foot soldiers, chanting and holding up automatic weapons, in a sort of war dance at his stronghold of Delmas 6.
“This is Kenya, bullets (for them),” they chanted.
Other gang leaders, too Wilson “Lanmo Sanjou” Josephthe leader of the 400 Mawozo group, and the youth leader of the Ti Bebe Bougoy group, have also appeared in videos mocking the Haitian authorities and Kenyans, while continuing to highlight their attacks.
In mid-July, the Kenyan contingent launched its own X account, called @MSSMHaitiin an effort to highlight their mission in Haiti (and change important information that has been inserted in some places).
Their daily reports show various actions by Kenyans: from hosting dignitaries in their base, to human rights studies, to optimistic accounts of patrols on the streets of Port-au-Prince.
But the intended optimism of this account, especially the references to “major achievements” and a “gradual return to normalcy,” seems to have angered many in Haiti.
Some Haitians have called them exaggeration at best and “propaganda” at worst.
BBC
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