US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman has hinted at a possible extension of the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti or a transition into a UN peacekeeping operation.
With the delay to deploy, which was caused by court cases in Kenya and preparation challenges, Ambassador Whitman on Tuesday said there will be a review in October to decide the next steps given the one-year period will be lapsing.
“The UN resolution to allow Kenyans to go to Haiti was in October last year, and there was a year-long period that we would see what would happen but Kenyans didn’t get there until June. There will be a check point in October”.
“There could be a peacekeeping operation, there could be another a bit of time that Kenya is asked to maintain their presence there, we will see. It should have been a full year from when the Kenyans arrived but because of the delay, it is five months. Everyone will take stock, including the Kenyans about what the right thing to do is,” Whitman told Citizen TV.
On October 2, 2023, the Security Council authorized deployment of a Multinational Security Support Mission, headed by Kenya, in close cooperation and coordination with the government of Haiti, for an initial period of 12 months, with a review after nine.
Adopting resolution 2699 (2023) by a recorded vote of 13 in favour with two abstentions (China and Russia), the Council authorized the Mission on the understanding that the cost of implementing the operation would be borne by voluntary contributions and support from individual member states and regional organizations.
The US has taken the lead in financing the mission, and Whitman said they have contributed $200 million in equipment and to help set up the operating base. The US is also helping raise money from the international community that has already gone to the US Trust Fund, she said.
In her review of the two-month-old mission, the envoy said it is “knock on wood going on very well”, and that the Haitian Police are working very close with their Kenyan counterparts. So far, she said, they have managed to secure the port, some part of down town and “a number of different places”.
“The President [Ruto] decided to send his police to Haiti because he said they [Haitians] are Africans on another continent, our brothers and sisters and we must try to be helpful to the people of Haiti who live in a set of very difficult circumstances and thus far, it has gone on very well,” Whitman said.
On Monday, Kenya’s Acting Inspector General of Police Gilbert Masengeli said the Kenya Police had made “significant progress” in tackling gang violence in the gang-ravaged country, and helped Haitian police take back control of “critical infrastructure such as the airport and “opened critical roads that have enabled the return of thousands of Haitians earlier displaced.”
There are, however, complaints of lack of equipment and delayed payments to the officers.
In this regard, the envoy said, “Today or tomorrow [Wednesday] virtually all the equipment will have arrived to support the Kenyan troops. It would have been better had they arrived a little more sooner but I think they have done a really nice job and the commander on the ground is doing very well”.
Whitman said Washington has indicated the police would get their dues on Thursday or Friday this week.
“That was unacceptable and shouldn’t have happened. They should have received their remuneration from the day they landed in Haiti. We will make sure that is made right,” Whitman said.
