Following months of delays thanks to an abrupt transition of power in the Caribbean nation, Kenyan security forces are finally set to leave for Haiti in an effort to quell ongoing unrest. Around 1,000 soldiers will arrive over the coming weeks to crack down on spiraling gang violence.
The first group of 400 security personnel will leave for the deployment on Tuesday, with the remaining 600 set to follow later, four Kenyan officers told Reuters, noting they would first stop in a third country before reaching Haiti.
Kenya’s President William Ruto bid the troops farewell during a ceremony on Monday, calling the multinational UN-backed mission “one of the most urgent, important and historic in the history of global solidarity.”
“It is a mission to affirm the universal values of the community of nations, a mission to take a stand for humanity,” the leader added.
The project is nearly two years in the making, with former Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry first asking the United Nations to send troops to deal with armed gangs back in 2022. Militants have acted with impunity since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, with criminal groups even seizing areas of the capital city at various points.
After several requests for an international force to help restore order, the then-PM struck a deal with Nairobi to head a security deployment last March. The plan was put on hold following Henry’s abrupt, US-brokered resignation that same month, however, with Kenya saying it would need a “sitting government to… collaborate with.”
With a shaky transitional government now in place under acting Prime Minister Garry Conille – who was once a top UN aide to former US President Bill Clinton – Haiti is now preparing for a round of elections sometime before early 2026.
Another 1,500 soldiers from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Chad, and Jamaica will join the Kenyan forces for the mission, which will largely be funded by the US taxpayer.
Will Porter is assistant news editor at the Libertarian Institute and a regular contributor at Antiwar.com. Find more of his work at Consortium News and ZeroHedge.
This is nothing but U.S. imperialism, with Kenya as a U.S. lackey. Thoroughly disgusting, and shame on Antiwar for publishing propaganda like this.
So better that Haiti should continue its spiral into full anarchy and chaos.