Foreign law enforcement officers began arriving in Haiti on Tuesday, more than a year and a half after the prime minister there appealed to other countries for help to end the rampant gang violence that has roiled the Caribbean nation.
Since that appeal was made in October 2022, more than 7,500 people have been killed by violence — more than 2,500 people so far this year alone, the United Nations said.
With the presidency vacant and a weakened national government, dozens of gangs have taken over much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, setting up roadblocks, kidnapping and killing civilians and attacking entire neighborhoods. About 200,000 people were forced from their homes between March and May, according to the UN.
Now an initial team of 400 Kenyan police is arriving in Haiti to tackle the gangs, an effort largely orchestrated by the Biden administration. The Kenyans are the first to deploy an expected force of 2,500 international police and military personnel from eight countries.
“You are undertaking a vital mission that crosses borders and cultures,” Kenyan President William Ruto told the officers on Monday. “Your presence in Haiti will bring hope and relief to communities torn apart by violence and devastated by unrest.”
Kenyan officers are expected to tackle a long list of priorities, including regaining control of the country’s main port, as well as freeing major highways from criminal gangs that extort money from drivers.
“Gang checkpoints on these streets are also an important source of their income generated by extorting money from all passers-by and by kidnapping and holding people for heavy ransoms,” said William O’Neill, an expert on UN for human rights in Haiti.
“Although long overdue, the arrival of the Kenyans comes at a good time,” particularly since a new police chief and prime minister were appointed in recent weeks, he said.
A small assessment team from Kenya arrived in May to begin preparations, but found that equipment was missing. That left the United States, the main supplier for the mission, scrambling to find armored vehicles and other equipment.
“The Kenyans don’t want to be one of those missions that show up on the ground and, for a month, never leave their base,” Dennis B. Hankins, the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, said in an interview. “They want to be able to quickly see that they’re having an impact.”
Officially called the Multinational Security Support Mission, the deployment is expected to take at least a year, according to the US government. Sanctioned by the UN and funded mainly by the United States, its goal is to support the Haitian police and create enough stability for the transitional government to hold elections to choose a new president, as well as a National Assembly.
The US military has flown more than 90 flights to Haiti to prepare for the mission, transporting more than 2,600 tons of supplies. Civilian contractors built sleeping quarters for Kenyan officers at Toussaint Louverture Airport in Port-au-Prince.
In May, Haitian government officials began clearing the airport perimeter of hundreds of homes, which had made it easier for gangs to hide and shoot at aircraft, forcing the airport to close.
The airport has reopened for commercial flights. But gang leaders have said they will fight the Kenyans, whom they see as invaders.
“Once we got the airport up and running and we started seeing military flights, that had a real significant psychological impact on the population,” Mr Hankins said.
Many experts are wary of assessing international power, largely because beyond addressing insecurity, there is no comprehensive plan to address the root causes of Haiti’s many governance problems.
After Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned in late April, it took several weeks for political parties to agree on who would serve on a new transitional presidential council. It was a full month before he took over as Mr. Henry’s replacement.
Gary Connell, a former UN official, accepted the position at the end of May. His office and the transition board declined to comment Monday on the upcoming development.
Haitian authorities have difficult decisions ahead of them, Mr. Hankins said, such as whether to first remove gang control of the main hospital in Port-au-Prince or secure the port so that fuel, food and other goods can flow consistently.
The gangs, he added, did not react while preparations were being made at the airport. The Kenyans will “support” the Haitian police, but not replace them, he said, so that when the mission ends their departure will not create a “security vacuum.”
So far, the The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Chad, Jamaica and Kenya have officially contributed personnel to the mission.
But the mission has not received a large financial commitment.
While Kenyan officials estimate the cost will reach $600 million, a UN fund to pay for it has only $21 million. The United States has pledged more than $300 million to fund the mission.
The Kenyan development comes a month after Kenya’s Mr Ruto traveled to the United States at the invitation of President Biden. The four-day trip was the first state visit by a Kenyan president in two decades and the first by an African leader since 2008.
The United States, Canada, and France—Haiti’s biggest benefactors and allies—were reluctant to send their own troops to Haiti.
Kenya was the first country to publicly offer to do so. Many experts believed the mission would be more welcome if it was led by an African nation.
Experts say Mr Ruto, who won the presidency in 2022 after a highly contested election, was using the development to further boost his profile on the world stage.
The development comes even as Mr Ruto faces massive nationwide protests against a finance bill that critics say will increase the already high cost of living.
A team of Haitian police commanders recently visited the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, while Mr Ruto held talks with Haiti’s transitional presidential council.
At a police camp in Nairobi, officers who will join the deployment were making final preparations. They have undergone physical and weapons training and received new helmets and body armor, according to interviews with officers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly to reporters.
They have also attended intensive courses in French and Creole.
In addition to protecting key infrastructure, the officers are at some point expected to secure the presidential palace, which remains in ruins after the 2010 earthquake but remains a symbolic seat of power in Haiti.
“The early development of this force will be very vulnerable,” said Sophie Rutenbar, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Center for International Cooperation who has worked in Haiti.
The initial team is likely to “play it safe” at first, he said, but even as more officers from other countries arrive, their task will be daunting, particularly because they haven’t worked together before, don’t speak the same languages ​​or have a common “business context”.
Eugene Chen, a former UN official who closely monitors Haiti, said the international mission appeared to be acting out of desperation to do something. Without finding ways to support Haiti’s political process, the mission could worsen the violence, Mr. Chen said.
“It’s not clear,” Mr. Chen added, “that this is the right answer.”
Abdi Latif Dahir contributed to the report from Nairobi and David C. Adams from Miami.
