Kenya’s President William Ruto has confirmed that the anticipated deployment of Kenyan police to Haiti would take place in the next two weeks.
Ruto made the revelation during a Sunday church service in Nakuru, confirming that Kenya will honour its pledge to send police officers in a bid to restore order in the Caribbean nation.
“We have a very blessed nation that is being depended on by foreign nations as well, People from Sudan, and DRC are waiting on Kenya to assist them.
“For those in Haiti maybe this coming week or next week we will deploy our Police to maintain peace,” Ruto explained.
Recall that the security situation in Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince has deteriorated with gangs staging several attacks and overwhelming the police, necessitation international intervention.
Ruto added that the 1000 Kenyan police officers will be part of a United Nations-backed peacekeeping mission, adding that other nations will also deploy 2500 officers with pre-deployment arrangements in the final stages.
President Ruto, however, defended the move to deploy Kenyan police officers to Haiti at a time when Kenya itself has its security challenges such as in Baringo, Marakwet and other areas noting that Kenya’s intervention to lead the peacekeeping mission was prompted by a desire to stop the loss of lives and restore security.
“We shouldn’t be losing people. We shouldn’t be losing missionaries. We are doing this to stop more people from losing their lives to the gangs.
“Once we have that assessment that we agreed with the Haitian police and the Haitian leadership, we are looking at the horizon of between three weeks and there about for us to be ready to deploy, once everything on the ground is set. I have a team already in Haiti as I speak to you,” President Ruto explained at the nation.
