Six weeks after setting foot in the Caribbean country, pressure is mounting on Kenyan police officers to make good on their promise to help control Haiti’s criminal gangs.
When the first contingent of 200 officers from this elite police force arrived in Port-au-Prince on June 25, they stepped confidently off their flight, wearing helmets and combat gear, carrying their weapons and holding high the Kenyan national flag.
On the airport tarmac, they sang in their native Swahili as they prepared themselves psychologically for what was to come. A second group of 200 Kenyan agents did the same when they landed three weeks later.
“Let’s go!” and “we’re moving!” were some of the shouts.
There were high hopes that the Kenyan police would provide much-needed force to the beleaguered Haitian National Police (PNH)which has struggled to contain a deadly offensive by criminal gangs that have terrorized Port-au-Prince and other large swaths of the country for more than three years.
The Kenyans are a multinational force mission mandated by the United Nations seeking to restore peace in Haiti.
At first they were welcomed by Haitian government leaders. and also by many of the Caribbean nation’s media outlets.
In fact, the radio station Independiente FM published on X (Twitter) a welcome greeting in the country’s language, Creole, for Kenyans:
“Haiti is the country of all Africans. Because you are black, Haiti is your home… You, the Kenyan soldiers, are at home and you should be welcomed to help fight these spenders (the gangs) who prevent us from living in our country.”
However, weeks after the long-awaited deployment, which had already been delayed by legal challenges in Kenya and logistical problems, Many Haitians seem frustrated and disillusioned because the force has not acted more quickly and decisively against the gangs, their leaders and their known hiding places.
Getty ImagesUN experts warned earlier this year that gangs had more firepower than Haiti’s police.
In the Haitian media and on social networks, comments of frustration are increasing, expressing impatience and disappointment.
There have been calls for “action, not words” and “concrete results.”
Some of the harshest criticisms accuse Kenyans of “theatricality” and of being mere “tourists”.
Critics point out that despite joint patrols by Kenyan and Haitian police in Port-au-Prince, where they have exchanged gunfire with suspected gang members, The gangs only seem to have tightened their grip over the southwestern and northeastern suburbs of the capital since the Kenyan mission began.
Gang members have attacked, burned or partially destroyed some police stations and continue to attack the main roads leading out of the capital and the interior.
There are those who feel that the Kenyan force has taken too long to make its presence felt.
“What are Kenyans waiting for to act against the bandits?”asked local media outlet AyiboPost in an article published on X (Twitter) on July 11, 15 days after the landing of the East Africans.
About two weeks later, the online news website Le Filet Info insisted: “The presence of the Kenyan police in the country does not succeed in scaring off the bandits.”
“They continue to massacre members of the civilian population,” he added.
Getty ImagesHundreds of thousands of Haitians have been forced from their homes by violence.
Criticism
Kenyan agents have already suffered their first casualty since arriving in Haiti.
On July 30, a police officer from this country was shot in the shoulder in Port-au-Prince when his patrol car clashed with gang members.
That same day, the Haitian police chief, Normil Branchaccompanied by the Kenyan force commander, Godfrey Otungeattempted to counteract unfavorable comments from local media.
Thus, both announced that More than 100 “bandits” had been killed in operations carried out under a state of emergency that was declared in the most gang-infested areas in mid-July.
However, authorities have failed to allay public skepticism.
Confidence was not improved by the online publication of videos that They showed senior Haitian government officials being escorted by police and hastily leaving the General Hospital. in downtown Port-au-Prince on July 29, amid a barrage of gunfire.
Both Haitian and Kenyan police have said the facility, which is now abandoned, is firmly under their control.
Despite these criticisms, Haiti’s interim prime minister, Garry Conilletold the BBC’s HardTalk programme that he welcomed the support, given Haiti’s police shortage of staff.
“We need help… But it is coming too slowly and Haitians are getting impatient.”he acknowledged.
The prime minister also rejected criticism of the deployment and the “heavy-handedness” of Kenyan officers in the face of recent anti-government unrest in the country.
“The respect for our laws and operating procedures has been very good and we are very happy with the help we are receiving,” he said, stressing that the role of Kenyans was to support and accompany the police, not operate independently.
Getty ImagesJimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier is a former police officer turned gang leader.
War dance
However, the Kenyans have faced a challenge from leaders of major Haitian gangs.
Just a few days after the arrival of the first group of Kenyans, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizierleader of the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) gang coalition, appeared in a provocative, nearly eight-minute video posted on X (Twitter).
In it, he was seen leading his masked foot soldiers, chanting and holding their automatic weapons aloft, in a kind of war dance in his stronghold of Delmas 6.
“Here is Kenya, bullets (for them),” they chanted.
Other gang leaders, including Wilson “Sanjou” Josephthe head of the 400 Mawozo gang, and the young head of the Ti Bebe Bougoy gang, have also been appearing in videos mocking both Haitian and Kenyan authorities, while continuing to flaunt their attacks.
In mid-July, the Kenyan contingent launched their own X account, called @MSSMHaitiin an attempt to showcase its mission in Haiti (and change the critical narrative that has been installed in some places).
Their daily reports show a variety of activities by Kenyans, from hosting visiting dignitaries at their base to lessons on human rights and upbeat accounts of patrolling the streets of Port-au-Prince.
But the resolute optimism of this account, particularly the references to “significant successes” and a “gradual return to normality,” appears to have irritated many in Haiti.
Some Haitians have called them, at best, exaggerated and, at worst, “propaganda.”
BBC
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