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Toussaint Louverture International Airport, Port-au-Prince. Photo Credit: Jonas Laurent

Overview:

A Kenyan delegation arrives in Haiti to evaluate preparations and liaise with local authorities, setting the stage for the initial deployment of Kenyan police officers to the country. Coinciding with this, Kenyan President William Ruto is in the United States to discuss the comprehensive deployment of the multinational security support mission.

PORT-AU-PRINCE— A delegation of about 50 Kenyans arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, marking the official resumption of commercial flights at Toussaint Louverture International Airport after a suspension of over two months due to escalating gang violence. The delegation, which arrived on a Sunrise Airways flight from Miami, Florida, is in Haiti ahead of the deployment of the first troops of the Multinational Security Support mission (MSS), scheduled for the end of May.

According to the Miami Herald, the delegation, which includes the mission’s force commander, is in Haiti to assess and inspect the construction of the MSS base and airport. The Kenyan team’s task involves closely examining the mission’s preparations and meeting several key figures, including Maria Salvador, the head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH).

During a press conference on Sunday, May 19, Korir Sing’oei, Kenya’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that the government is finalizing deployment preparations. “Deployment will happen in the next few days, next few weeks,” Sing’oei stated, adding that Kenya has long been preparing for the mission.

This team of Kenyan officials will facilitate the deployment of the first group of 200 elite police officers and support staff from the multinational mission against gang violence in Haiti.

The visit coincides with Kenyan President Williams Ruto’s arrival in the United States, where he is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House on May 23. Their discussions will focus on the economy, prosperity, investment, democracy, civilian security and the deployment of the multinational force in Haiti.

According to Hussein Mahomed, spokesperson for the Kenyan president’s office, during his official visit, Ruto will also meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and hold discussions with the bipartisan Caucus in the U.S. House and Senate. He is expected to spend three days in the United States before returning to Kenya.

Ruto’s visit to the White House in Washington, D.C., coincides with the deployment of the first group of Kenyan police from 1000 officers pledged to the MSS. This move has been deemed “unconstitutional” and is currently being challenged in the Kenyan High Court of Justice.

On May 16, former presidential candidate Ekuru Aukot from the Third Alliance political party and other petitioners filed an appeal in court to denounce the government’s ongoing preparations for deploying Kenyan police officers outside their territory. The petitioners argue that the government is showing contempt for a judicial decision that blocked the deployment in January.

Despite the petitioners’ pending appeal, Kenyan media reported that the first contingent of officers left the East African nation on Saturday for the United States. They are expected to make a stopover before being deployed to the Haitian capital, where they will lead the MSS.

Meanwhile, in Haiti, neither the presidential council nor the Haitian national police have officially communicated any information on the deployment of the multinational force announced by the American and Kenyan authorities. However, the PNH’s director general, Frantz Elbé, has promised to work with the mission to bring security and peace to the country.

I am Juhakenson Blaise, a journalist based in the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I cover the news that develops in this city and deals with other subjects related to the experience of Haitians for the Haitian Times newspaper. I am also a lover of poetry.

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  1. The coming of the Kenyans force – To put in context the current situation of the yet another impending endless foreign invasions to Haiti -via the cover of the Kenyans – there are two things that all Haitians should retain; which I have retained from school in Haiti:

    1. Jean-Jacques “Duclos”, as he was sold one more time into slavery, and was purchased by a certain black afranchi Mr. Dessalines, Jean-Jacques told Mr. Dessalines, “whether you are a white colonizer or black colonizer, I will fight you all”… Mr Dessalines assured Jean-Jacques that he didn’t purchase him to be his slave, but to free him. Subsequently, Jean-Jacques Duclos became, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. The most important comment here for the Haitian patriots to remember is, as the impending Kenyan police or military force is being used by the white colonizers – with explicit complexity of the domestic Haitian elites slaves puppets – is the word of the liberator JJ Dessalines “whether you are a white colonizer or black colonizer, I will fight you all”.

    2. In the Haitian National anthem, these words reverberate “… dans nos rands point de traites, du sol soyons seul maître…”, so who are the domestic slave traites who sold out and signed up to bring the Kenyans and their eelks to Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ land Haiti? As mentioned above the same domestic morrons who invited Washington in 1915 to 1934, again in 1994 to disband our force army, a noble institution. As a result, Haiti endured seven UN military missions, with the last few UN missions they sent Nepaleses and others who dump kaka in our largest rivers that killed 10 thousand Haitians with Colera and sicken 500,000 more, and raped many young girls and women. Now they are sending the Kenyans to give Haitians people the Ebola (a lot deadlier than Colera) and to rape more. So, Ukraine and others deserves billions of dollars in aid, while Haiti deserve a proliferation of high powered weapons in the millions in the hands of lawless individuals and now we are getting the Kenyans… we have nothing against our Kenyans African brothers who want to come to Haiti as civilians, but those Kenyans who want to be used by the white colonizers to do their biddings, then Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ echoing words “whether you are a white colonizer or black colonizer, I will fight you all” is a stark reminder and a calling to all patriotic Haitians to manifest that enough is enough… Vive Jean-Jacques Dessalines and vive Haitian pride!!

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