The president of Kenya, William Ruto, expects that his country’s police force that must lead the fight against citizen insecurity in Haiti will arrive in that territory in about three weeks, according to what he told the BBC.
Ruto explained in an interview with the British public broadcaster, at the end of his visit to the United States, that a planning team is already in the Caribbean country to lay the foundations for the international mission sponsored by the UN and that Nairobi will lead.
“As we speak, I already have a team in Haiti,” Ruto declared on Friday.
“This will give us an idea of how things are on the ground, the available troops and the existing infrastructure,” he explained.
“Once we have this evaluation in collaboration with the Haitian Police and leadership, we contemplate a horizon of approximately three weeks to be prepared to deploy, once everything is ready on the ground,” he stated.
Ruto specified that the base where the troops and equipment will be housed, which is being built jointly with the US, is “70%” complete.
Asked about the deaths on Thursday of three missionaries, two of them Americans, the president responded that it is “exactly” these types of events that Kenya is preparing to send its police force to.
“We shouldn’t lose people. We should not lose missionaries. We are doing this to prevent more people from losing their lives at the hands of the gangs” that have taken over much of Haiti and besieged its capital, Port-au-Prince, since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.
Kenya offered to lead an international mission, with logistical support from the United States, to try to restore peace in the Caribbean country, where insecurity caused by the activity of armed gangs has led to the deaths of hundreds of people.
Source: Agencies
