KENYA and Haiti signed agreements today to try to salvage a plan for the African country to deploy 1,000 police officers to the troubled Caribbean nation to help combat gang violence that has surged to unprecedented levels.

Kenya agreed in October to lead a United Nations-authorised international police force to Haiti, but the Kenyan High Court in January ruled the plan unconstitutional, in part because of a lack of reciprocal agreements between the two countries.

Kenya’s President William Ruto said in a statement that he and unelected Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry witnessed the signing of the reciprocal agreements between the two countries today.

It was not immediately clear how, or if, the agreements could circumvent the court’s ruling.

Kenyan opposition politician Ekuru Aukot said in a post on the X social media site, that Mr Henry has no constitutional or legal powers to commit Haiti to any agreements with Kenya.

Mr Henry said today: “We need elections in order to stabilise the country. We need democratic governance in order to have people to come and invest in Haiti.”

He has repeatedly pledged to hold elections since being sworn in as prime minister and interim president after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. 

Caribbean leaders said late on Wednesday that Mr Henry has agreed to hold general elections by mid-2025.

Meanwhile, back in Haiti, gunmen shot at the main international airport and other targets, including police stations, killing at least four police officers.

Jimmy Cherizier, known as “Barbecue,” the leader of the gang federation G9 Family and Allies, announced in a recorded video that his group’s aim was to detain the police chief and government ministers and prevent Henry from returning to Haiti.

“With our guns and with the Haitian people, we will free the country,” he said.

More than 8,400 people were reported killed, injured or kidnapped in Haiti in 2023, with gangs estimated to control up to 80 per cent of Port-au-Prince.