The deployment as part of a UN-supported mission of a thousand Kenyan police officers in Haiti, plunged into chaos and violence, will only be possible with funding from the member states of the international organization, Kenya’s Interior Minister said Thursday.
According to Minister Kithure Kindiki, the overall budget for the deployment of police officers for a year, which aims to restore calm in this Caribbean country plagued by gangs controlling entire regions of the country, amounts to 600 million dollars.
“Unless all resources are mobilized […]our troops will not leave the country,” he told a parliamentary committee, asking that funding be provided by “United Nations member states.”
The UN Security Council gave the green light in early October to the Kenyan-led mission to assist the Haitian police.
Kenya has said it is ready to provide up to 1,000 police officers, and Kithure Kindiki said 11 countries have also committed to the mission, without naming them.
“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.
A Kenyan court in October issued an order barring the dispatch of the police officers until it rules on a petition challenging the deployment.
The Kenyan government’s decision to deploy police officers in Haiti has raised many questions and criticism in this East African country.
The Nairobi High Court is to consider an appeal filed by lawyer and opponent Ekuru Aukot, who argues that the deployment is unconstitutional.
The Minister of the Interior assured that preparations would continue despite this suspension.
Details of the U.S.-backed mission in Haiti are not yet finalized and Parliament has not yet voted on it, as required by the Constitution.
Kenya has already participated in several peacekeeping operations in neighboring countries (DRC, Somalia) and in various parts of the world (Liberia, East Timor, former Yugoslavia, etc.).
According to the World Food Program (WFP), which describes a “humanitarian crisis” in Haiti, around 40,000 people were forced to leave their homes between mid-August and the end of October due to the violence.