Kenya's Court judge Justice Chacha Mwita delivers judgement on a petition against the deployment of Kenyan forces to Haiti, at Milimani court in the capital Nairobi, Kenya, January 26, 2024
A TOP Kenyan court today blocked the government of President William Ruto from deploying a force of armed police officers to Haiti, to fight the gangs that control large parts of the Caribbean republic.
In a major blow to President Ruto, the United States and its allies, the Kenyan High Court said the deployment would be illegal as the National Security Council lacks the authority to send police outside the country.
The judge said Kenyan authorities only have the authority to deploy armed forces for such peacekeeping missions.
Last year Kenya was persuaded by the United States to lead a multinational police force in Haiti to help stem gang violence.
The unelected Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was appointed by the so-called “core group” — the US, Canada, France, the EU and the UN — in July 2021, last year asked for the urgent deployment of a force to the troubled nation.
Mr Henry was put in office after the murder of President Jovenel Moise earlier that month.
Mr Henry said his government had been overwhelmed by gangs who control around 80 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The UN security council backed Kenya's offer to lead the force and Kenyan lawmakers went on to approve the deployment.
Opposition leader Ekuru Aukot, who brought the case, said this was a win for Kenya which needed to use the officers to tackle its own security challenges.
Mr Aukot accused President Ruto of offering the deployment to seek favour with the US.
The news followed a report to the UN security council by special envoy Maria Isabel Salvador, where she said the number of victims killed, injured and kidnapped more than doubled last year.
She said: “I cannot overstress the severity of the situation in Haiti, where multiple protracted crises have reached a critical point.”
Ms Salvador told the council that her office documented more than 8,400 victims of gang violence during 2023, a staggering rise of 122 per cent over the previous year.
Gangs were mainly targeting the capital Port au Prince where around 300 gangs control an estimated 80 per cent of the city, and accounted for 83 per cent of last year’s killings and injuries, Ms Salvador said.
But, she added, they have reached northward into the Artibonite region, considered Haiti's food basket, and south of the capital “gangs conducted large-scale attacks to control key zones,” systematically using sexual violence to exert control.
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