Kenya in Haiti: Dark clouds gather over peace mission
By Editorial, June 30, 2025As Kenyans were preoccupied with the anniversary of the June 2024 protests and the aftermath of Wednesday’s commemorative demos, another noteworthy milestone involving our compatriots was marked with little fanfare more than 12,000km away.
Top Haitian and United Nations officials gathered in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, on Thursday, June 26, 2025, to mark one year since the arrival of the first Kenyan police officers in the gang-ridden Caribbean nation to lead the UN-backed Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission.
The international police force – which also has officers from Jamaica, Guatemala, and El Salvador – has not restored order in Haiti, with gangs now controlling most of Port-au-Prince. Funding for the mission and its future are also uncertain.
The funding ends in September 2025, and the UN mandate lapses on October 2, 2025. While US officials have okayed waivers for $40.7 million in foreign assistance for the mission and the Haitian police, President Trump’s administration has not said whether it will renew funding.
Support for Haiti is not a top priority in the current “America First” politics. With money running out and gang violence relentless – at least 2,680 people were killed in the first five months of 2025, per the UN – Kenya must now decide whether it’s worth continuing participation in this mission.
Having committed to lead the international force and deployed 800 officers, Kenya is in a delicate position. Officials face several potential diplomatic minefields.
Top among them is the level of commitment – Nairobi will need to weigh whether to continue participating in the mission regardless of funding. And second, it will have to properly manage domestic political pressure. President William Ruto risks further inflaming the wrath of an already agitated population if the mission fails or drags on and becomes a financial burden.
If proposals to convert the mission into a formal UN peacekeeping operation succeed, this could provide a smoother way out for Kenya.
While this route could threaten Kenya’s leadership role in the mission, it would provide more sustainable funding and improve prospects for peace in Haiti.
At Thursday’s deployment commemoration event in Port-au-Prince, the mission’s force commander Godfrey Otunge struck a hopeful note, saying that with support, “I firmly believe that we can build a Haiti where conflict is replaced by tranquillity and the Haitian people can thrive”. That spirit will be severely tested in the coming weeks.