Kenya's High Court has ruled against the government's plan to deploy hundreds of police officers to Haiti as part of a UN-backed multinational mission to combat rampant gang violence. Judge Enock Chacha Mwita declared the deployment unconstitutional, illegal, and invalid, stating that any decision by a state organ or officer to send police to Haiti violates the law.
The ruling leaves the multinational mission in limbo and is a setback for the Kenyan government, which had hoped to have police on the ground this month. The government has said it will appeal the decision. The UN Security Council had approved the Kenya-led mission in early October, but opposition from home and legal challenges cast doubt on its feasibility.
Haiti's foreign minister, Jean Victor Généus, pleaded for the deployment to be accelerated, telling the UN Security Council that violence in the country was as barbaric as in a war zone. The UN's special representative for Haiti, María Isabel Salvador, reported that at least 4,789 people were killed and 2,490 kidnapped in 2023, with gang violence surging by 122%. She emphasised the urgent need for foreign intervention, noting that violence now extends beyond the capital into rural areas.
The court's ruling did not address major constitutional issues, but found that a reciprocal arrangement with the host government was missing. This requirement was not contested by the government. Meanwhile, Haiti's security forces are increasingly outgunned, with nearly 3,300 officers lost in the past three years, mostly due to desertions. Underpaid and undertrained officers are fleeing, leaving the country vulnerable to well-armed gangs.
Experts warn that the international mission must be tactically astute and numerous to avoid being seen as weak. Salvador cautioned that long-term stability requires a nationally owned and inclusive political process, given Haiti's troubled history with foreign interventions, including sexual abuse by peacekeepers and the introduction of cholera.
