Kenya deploys additional 144 police to Haiti

Kenya said Thursday it had deployed more than 100 additional police officers to Haiti, after Washington backtracked on withdrawing support for a security mission to the troubled nation.

Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump’s administration said it had frozen financial contributions to the mission, but the State Department said Wednesday it was maintaining most of the aid.

Kenya’s interior ministry confirmed to AFP that 144 officers had been deployed Tuesday morning, bringing the total number in the country to more than 700.

Interior Ministry cabinet secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the force comprised of “120 men and 24 women to bolster the 600 officers deployed earlier”.

“We’re constantly in touch with the UN and countries supporting this mission including the USA whose support in equipment and funding has been invaluable and unwavering,” he added on X.

The Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), under United Nations auspices, has been in Haiti since 2023.

However, the mission has been plagued by problems, with the UN chief saying at the beginning of the year that more aid was needed for it to be effective.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in January that the mission was “still not deployed to full strength”, limiting its capacity to support the national police.

Haiti has no president or parliament and is ruled by a transitional body, which is struggling to manage extreme violence linked to criminal gangs, poverty and other challenges.

More than 5,600 people were killed in Haiti last year as a result of gang violence, about a thousand more than in 2023, the UN said.

More than a million Haitians were forced to flee their homes, three times as many as the year before.