PREVIEW
Ruto has pledged additional officers for the UN-backed mission to Haiti while urging the international community to do more to fund the force
Despite President William Ruto’s promise that 600 additional police officers would be deployed to the peacekeeping effort tackling gang warfare in Haiti, the mission is set to run out of money next March.
At a joint press conference with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille in Nairobi on 11 October, Ruto said that extra officers were in training and would be deployed to the Caribbean state in November. But he warned that the international community would need to cough up extra funding to pay for the force, just weeks after the United Nations Security Council agreed to extend its mandate until October 2025.
After months of delays, including court judgements in Kenya deeming the mission to be unconstitutional, the first contingent of officers arrived in Haiti in June (Dispatches, 30/1/24, Judges sink Ruto's plan to send police to Haiti).
The new officers will take Kenya’s deployment to 1,000, the full number originally promised by Ruto last year (AC Vol 64 No 16, Kenyan cops vs Haitian gangs). With the exception of 25 troops from Jamaica, no other country has made good on its promises to put boots on the ground. The UN says that the mission will require at least 2,000 police officers.
There have been mixed reports on the effectiveness of the Kenyan officers. Conille denied reports that they had been confined to their Port-au-Prince barracks and had been unable to conduct any major operations so far.
More than 3,600 people have been killed in Haiti since January, while more than 500,000 people have been displaced from their homes, according to the UN.
Wrangling over the financing of the mission, which is funded by voluntary contributions, has also contributed to delays.
The NGO Human Rights Watch has reported that only US$85 million of the estimated $600m required annually for the operation has been received via a trust fund set up by the UN. The United States, which pledged $100m to the mission, is the main donor (Dispatches 15/11/23, Finance needed before UN police mission, say ministers).
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