Photo courtesy of Missao de Paz via Flickr.
By Mira Crane ’27
Contributing Writer
Content warning: This article discusses mass death, police brutality, sexual violence and murder.
A Kenyan court ruling just damaged the prospects for a peacekeeping mission to Haiti. On Friday, Jan. 26, the High Court of Kenya blocked the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers intended to take part in a peacekeeping mission to Haiti on the basis that Kenya’s government did not follow the correct procedure to authorize the mission, The New York Times reported.
The challenge began in October after Kenyan opponents of the force appealed its deployment as unconstitutional. The security force was supported by the United Nations and financed with $200 million from the United States. According to The New York Times, the court's ruling jeopardizes the international mission as the Kenyan police were expected to take the lead.
The force was intended to combat the prevalence of gangs in Haiti, which control an estimated 80% of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and are tightening their grip, according to NPR. This year, the number of deaths reported has nearly doubled and now stands at 4,500. The number of kidnappings is up by 80%, reaching 2,500 cases, according to NPR.
The Washington Post reported that gangs have been growing in power since former President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021, taking control of relatively peaceful communities across Haiti. There is widespread concern that they will soon have all of Port-au-Prince under their control, NPR reported.
Efforts from the international community to provide aid have also been unsuccessful, as gangs have used heavy fire to destroy equipment sent to Haiti. Forty-seven armored vehicles were sent, and only 21 are still operational. The police department has also lost many officers, with 48 reported dead and 1,600 that have quit, according to NPR.
According to The New York Times, the Haitian National Police have already received about $185 million from the U.S. State Department, but they are still not prepared to confront gangs that are heavily armed.
The request of the Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry — who has struggled to garner support due to being appointed and not elected to his role — garnered mixed reactions in Haiti, The Washington Post reported.
According to The Washington Post, a peacekeeping force was approved by the U.N. Security Council in October, a year after Henry appealed for an international intervention. After countries like the United States and Canada declined, Kenya offered to lead the mission.
However, according to The New York Times, a U.N. peacekeeping force stationed in Haiti in 2010 spread cholera and caused over 9,000 deaths due to poor sanitation at a basecamp wafting sewage downstream. There has also been repeated documentation of sexual exploitation carried out by peacekeepers and aid workers. Yet the ongoing security crisis caused by the gangs has led some people to be receptive to the idea of an international intervention, The New York Times reported.
Kenya’s military has been a part of numerous U.N. peacekeeping missions, visiting countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan, The New York Times reported. Now, Kenya’s government plans to appeal the court’s ruling, but the deployment of troops for the peacekeeping mission is still in doubt.
It is hard to tell how long the appeal will take, and it is unclear whether other, smaller countries that are supposed to take part in the mission will be willing to send troops if Kenya backs out, NPR reported.
The court's ruling has led to the spread of fear and doubt and heightened the violence in the capital. The Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, commented that “The decision of the Kenyan court warrants an emergency meeting of the friends of Haiti to determine with the Haitian people the plan B,” NPR reported.
According to The New York Times, Haitians are trying to go back to their everyday routines even as they fear becoming victims of violence. There is still no clear plan B, and Haiti has been left to come up with its own solution.
