The Kenyan Parliament approved Thursday, November 16, the deployment as part of a UN-supported mission of a thousand police officers in Haiti, shaken by violence, despite criticism of this project in the African country. ‘East. This deployment, however, remains suspended by the Nairobi High Court which is examining an appeal filed by an opponent from Thursday. According to a judge, Enock Mwita, the High Court is due to rule on this appeal on January 26, 2024.
At the beginning of October, the UN Security Council gave the green light to send a multinational mission to Haiti led by Kenya to help the Haitian police. The small Caribbean state is plagued by gang violence that controls 80% of the capital, with the number of serious crimes having reached records, according to the UN representative in the country.
“The yes side wins,” laconically declared the vice-president of the Kenyan Parliament, Gladys Boss Shollei, after asking elected officials to speak out loud on sending the police officers. Ahead of Thursday’s hearing at the Nairobi High Court, the opponent who brought it, Ekuru Aukot, criticized Parliament for initiating the vote, accusing lawmakers of “disobeying a court order.” For Mr. Aukot, the mission is unconstitutional because it is not based on any law or treaty.
But National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah said lawmakers were not breaking any laws and the work of the judiciary “does not prevent Parliament from fulfilling its constitutional mandate.” If Nairobi has promised a thousand members of law enforcement, the total number and composition of the force, supported by the United States, have not been finalized.
“An initial period of twelve months”
Kenya has already participated in several peacekeeping operations in neighboring countries (DRC, Somalia) and in other parts of the world (Liberia, East Timor, former Yugoslavia, etc.). The Kenyan government has come under strong criticism since announcing its decision to send police officers to Haiti, a highly unstable and dangerous country.
Human rights NGOs point out that the Kenyan police have a habit of using force, sometimes lethal, against civilians, which constitutes a major risk in a country where previous foreign interventions have been marked by human rights violations. human rights. Ekuru Aukot hit the nail on the head on X (ex-Twitter), saying that “this deployment is a suicide mission for our 1,000 police officers”.
According to Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki, the overall budget for the deployment of police officers for one year is $600 million. Nairobi requested on November 9 that funding for the mission be provided by UN member states. “We are not sending an occupation force, we are sending a force to support the structures already existing in this country on the basis of their request,” he assured. President William Ruto, for his part, affirmed that it was a “mission for humanity” in a country ravaged according to him by colonialism.
According to the UN Security Council resolution adopted in October by thirteen votes in favor and two abstentions (China and Russia) after difficult negotiations, this non-UN “multinational security support mission” is created for “a initial period of twelve months”, with a reassessment after nine.
The resolution also called on the future mission to “take appropriate measures regarding wastewater management” to prevent the spread of diseases. A recommendation probably intended to reassure Haitians who have very bad memories of the last international force deployed on their territory.
Blue helmets from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah), present from 2004 to 2017, had in fact brought cholera, leading to an epidemic that caused more than 10,000 deaths. This episode partly explains why the future force will not be created under the UN flag.