Kenyan police vanguard team leaves Haiti due to delay in international mission

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An advance team of Kenyan police officers testing readiness for the deployment of a multinational force to contain violence in Haiti is on its way home after the planned deployment was delayed due to logistical problems.

The team was scheduled to return from Haiti on Monday after the president recommended and later announced a delay in the deployment.

A senior Kenyan official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he is not his official spokesman, said the bases were still under construction and crucial resources, including vehicles, were needed before the first 200 police officers could be deployed from Kenya.

The operation was supposed to start this week, but President William Ruto said it would be delayed by three weeks.

The base from which the police will operate is about 70% complete and there is a need for secure storage for the armoury, said the senior official who was part of the advance command.

The officials arrived in Haiti on Tuesday, met with Haitian police on Thursday and with the interim presidential council on Friday.

US President Joe Biden expressed his deep gratitude to Ruto, who was on a state visit, on Thursday for his efforts to curb gang violence in Haiti.

The United States has agreed to contribute $300 million to a multinational force that will include 1,000 Kenyan police officers, as well as other officials from Jamaica, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda and other countries.

Haiti has suffered from poverty, political instability and natural disasters for decades. International intervention in Haiti has a complicated history. A United Nations-approved stabilization mission in Haiti that began in June 2004 was marred by a sexual abuse scandal and that Introduction of cholerain which almost 10,000 people died. The mission ended in October 2017.