Kenya takes charge of future force in Haiti, at the request of the United States

2023-10-02 23:25:34
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry at the UN General Assembly in New York on September 22, 2023. EDUARDO MUNOZ / REUTERS

For months, the government of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry had been calling for the deployment of an international intervention force to fight against armed gang violence. The United Nations Security Council has just heard this by voting, on Monday October 2, a resolution tabled by the United States and Ecuador authorizing such an intervention. “The daily life of the Haitian people is difficult, which is why the Security Council […] must act urgently by authorizing the deployment of a multinational security support mission”Ariel Henry declared at the UN on September 22.

Read also: Haiti: the creation of an international force is taking shape to fight against gang violence

This multinational force, composed mainly of police officers but also soldiers, will be led by Kenya: it is ” out of the question “ to abandon the Haitian population, said President William Ruto, referring to the “Kenya’s duty of solidarity towards all people of Afro-descendants throughout the world”. Preparations for this mission are already advanced: a Kenyan delegation made an assessment trip to the Haitian capital in August and Nairobi announced that a thousand of its police officers, who are already taking French courses, will be deployed. In exchange, Kenya received the promise of funding from the United States to the tune of 100 million dollars (95 million euros) to support the operation.

This Kenyan commitment to Haiti is surprising, even though diplomatic relations between the two states were, to say the least, strained until then. The rapprochement between Port-au-Prince and Nairobi was made hastily, under the leadership of the United States and while William Ruto is seeking aura on the international scene. “It’s exotic for Kenya to come to Haiti, no one wanted to go there. Kenya was chosen for lack of anything better”judge Jean-Marie Théodat, lecturer at the University of Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Massacres, sexual violence and cholera

The painful past of previous UN interventions in Haiti – marred by massacres, sexual violence and the spread of a cholera epidemic – and the rejection of American interference by the population pushed Washington to imagine a new formula: a multinational force , led by an African country, in which will participate “ten to twelve countries” (notably Jamaica, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda), according to Victoria Nuland, number two at the American Department of State, with logistical, financial and medical support from the United States. The force will be operational in January, according to sources within the Kenyan government.

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