Kenyan police arrive in Haiti as violence erupts around parliament back home

The first contingent of Kenyan police arrived in the Haitian capital on Tuesday to launch a peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country that has been ravaged by gang violence just as deadly protests overwhelmed security forces at home.

Uniformed Kenyan police disembarked from a Kenya Airways plane with weapons in hand in Port-au-Prince, while in Nairobi police opened fire on demonstrators trying to storm the parliament, with at least five protesters killed, dozens wounded and sections of the building set ablaze.

Kenyan lawmakers earlier on Tuesday had approved legislation to raise taxes.

In Haiti, the Kenyan police have been charged with leading a mission to support the beleaguered national police and tackle growing gangland violence that has caused a humanitarian crisis. Over half a million people have been displaced from their homes and nearly five million are facing severe food insecurity.

But the violence outside the parliament in Nairobi has led some to question Kenya’s ability to lead the Haitian security mission.

“The police should be able to operate well in their own country, but they can’t,” said Enock Alumasi Makanga, an ex-Kenyan police officer now working in private security. “How do you think they can manage then when they arrive in Haiti?”

As the line of Kenyan police streamed out of the plane in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday morning, a small crowd, mostly airport personnel, greeted them on the tarmac.

The Kenyan police are expected to be joined by officers from some 15 other nations, including other countries in Africa and the Caribbean, as well as Canada, France, Germany, Britain and Spain. All together, the security forces will form a 2,500-strong peacekeeping mission funded primarily by the United States.

The Nairobi violence was unlikely to disrupt plans to send further Kenyan police to Haiti, according to a Kenyan security source.

In a statement, U.S. President Joe Biden hailed the arrival of the Kenyan police as a turning point that “will bring much needed relief” to the island nation of nearly 12 million.

“I commend – and am deeply grateful to – all the countries that have pledged personnel and financial support to this mission,” he said, adding that the U.S. government has provided over $300 million overall, and up to $60 million in equipment.

Last July, Kenya volunteered to lead an international force backed by the United Nations to stem the latest wave of violence to afflict the former French colony, where gangs who control most of the capital have carried out widespread killings, kidnappings and sexual violence.

“This mission is one of the most urgent, important and historic in the history of global solidarity,” President William Ruto said as he held a departure ceremony on Monday for the first 400 officers to be deployed.

Not everyone in Kenya is supportive of the move.

Willy Mutunga, the former chief judge of Kenya’s Supreme Court, said the decision by Ruto to send police to Haiti despite security challenges at home was a sign of how his government had put the interests of its foreign backers ahead of those of the people it represents.

The deployment has been repeatedly delayed by court challenges in Kenya and lawlessness in Haiti.

Even with boots now on the ground, doubts persist over what kind of training the arriving forces have been provided, their rules of engagement, and the oversight standards, according to a statement on Tuesday from non-profits operating in the country including Save the Children and World Vision.

The groups expressed concern that “armed groups in Haiti will respond forcefully” to the mission and that children will likely be caught in the crossfire.