Haiti mission: How Kenya's 1,000-strong force is preparing for planned intervention
The Kenyan contingent, which is on standby, consists of 1,000 officers drawn from National Police Service units: the paramilitary General Service Unit, Rapid Deployment Unit, Anti-Stock Theft Unit and Border Police Unit. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
Kenya has temporarily halted controversial plans to send a specially trained contingent of 1,000 police officers to Haiti, where armed gang violence recently took a turn for the worse. After a visit to Nairobi in early March where he signed terms for Kenya’s deployment, Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry was forced to resign as gangs took control of the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince. In the absence of a government in Haiti, plans to deploy Kenyan troops are on hold.
Oscar Gakuo Mwangi, who studies radicalisation and counterterrorism in Kenya, takes a look at Kenya’s preparedness to take on Haiti’s urban gangs.
