Why it’ll be a tough road for Kenya police in Haiti
By Korir Weldon, October 6, 2023When I was hired as a country safety security and humanitarian access manager in Haiti, I immediately packed my bags ready to roll.
However, I had to leave behind anything identifying me as a military man; my bags, IDs and possessions. That life was, after all, behind me and I was going on a humanitarian mission.
Despite all the preparations, real time information from the ground and all the organisational support at my disposal, I still felt vulnerable, like a blind man walking. I was used to deployments where you knew you got eyes in the sky and on the ground and the support of colleagues from different countries ready to cover your back. However, the Haiti mission was different. I had to refrain from taking sides, which meant I could only use the term “armed groups” instead of “gangs”.
With all the information I had gathered about kidnappings and the possibility of ending up as a victim between the airport and my destination, I kept my possessions lean and carried nothing of sentimental value. The one thing I kept with me was my Kenyan wristband. Back then, no gang in Haiti would have minded a Kenyan brother. But most likely after the deployment of the Kenya police, I would not recommend anyone to parade themselves as Kenyans in this Island.
A glance to Haiti’s complex context will reveal a country devastated by natural disasters since the mid 1700s. In 2010, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake claimed 220,000 lives, injured 300,000 and displaced over 1.5 million people. To date, they have never recovered from the disaster and subsequent ones of smaller scale.
Rapid growth
According to United States Geological Survey (USGS), Haiti sits on tectonic plates that slide past each other over a period of time. In short, it’s the Islands with the highest risks of devastating natural disasters. It is catastrophic for the poor majority who are exposed to risks because of poor structures built even in the most vulnerable areas.
Now, to the Kenya police mission slated for January. The Kenya-led multinational force will be dealing with over 200-armed groups that have rapidly grown in numbers overtime. The fluid security situation is made worse by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021. Gangs control 80 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. There are over 100-armed groups in the city alone. They have taken control of the ports and all strategic routes in and out of the city. These gangs are superior to Haiti police in terms of weaponry, resources, intelligence gathering and knowledge of the terrain. The understaffed, untrained, under resourced, underpaid and demoralised Haitian National Police have nothing on them. In some places, the gangs have taken over police stations. Worth noting is that every time the police get new equipment from the US or Canada and attempt an operation against the gangs, they are killed, and their vehicles burnt or confiscated by the gangs. Those who go back home alive have to walk back with nothing but their boxers.Most of the armed groups have their territories or neighborhoods called les base. Majority started as vigilantes to protect their neighborhoods from other gangs but eventually started forcing residents to pay protection fees. They also started collecting taxes for vehicles plying various routes within their zones.
The largest group of gangs are G-9, G-PEP and 400 Mawozo. G-9 is led by a former police officer, Jimmy Chérizier alias “Barbecue”. Kidnappings are rampant and have hit high peaks in the past few years. Most gangs use kidnapping to raise funds to buy arms and remain in business. Gang territorial wars are what pushes the humanitarian crisis to the extreme in the capital. Many innocent civilians have been killed, injured or displaced because of interterritorial gang conflicts. Children are often forcibly recruited to join and fill the gangs’ ranks. Social unrests occur regularly, often spontaneous. People protests due to poor provision of services, fuel scarcity, high cost of living and run-away insecurity. Their objective is to paralyse all functions and force the interim government, led by acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry, to resign. G-9 gangs have mastered the art of blockading the main fuel depot that supplies fuel into the country. They have done this more than once for more than several weeks, crippling essential services like hospitals and schools. And Haiti’s infrastructure depends on fuel to produce electricity, the country is at the mercy of the gangs who decide when to block and paralyse fuel supply.
But that is not the only problem facing the island nation. Haiti is a play area for drug traffickers, gunrunners and human trafficking. The open unpatrolled Caribbean seas to the west and Atlantic Ocean to the northern shores have no navy or police to cover the expansive coastline. This acts as a haven for the most powerful cartels in the Caribbean to run drugs and arms businesses. The biggest market for drugs is the US, which is just a few nautical miles away. It is one of the reasons why the US has taken a keen interest in Haiti.
Kenya’s President William Ruto has taken a bold step out into the dark by offering to lead in liberating the Haitian people from gangs especially given that countries neighbouring Haiti are not interested in being part of the solution. Haiti, after all, is the only French-speaking country in the Caribbean. All the others speak Spanish.
Kenya has volunteered 1,000 uniformed personnel to lead in providing strategic support to the Haitian National Police in dealing with the gangs and restore much needed order. Other countries that have so far declared their willingness to join Kenya are the Bahamas, Jamaica and Antica and Barmuda. There is likely possibility also that Rwanda and Senegal could come on board as well.
Not many countries have done what Kenya is about to do. In the past, Fidel Castro, the then leader of Cuba, provided troops, logistics and later doctors to help Africa’s struggle for independence. With only a population of 11 million, Cuba’s distinct progressive foreign policy contributed a lot to Africa’s liberation. It provided troops when African needed them and deployed the largest contingent of medical doctors during the Ebola crisis, just to enumerate two humanitarian assignments.
Today, Kenya has peacekeeping troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo and now preparing to deploy Administration Police and General Service Unit (GSU) officers to Haiti. While of course grinding the long-term local problem of cattle rustling in the North-Rift. In short, Kenya is giving its security agents dangerous but delectable international assignments.The mission in Haiti will demand that the Kenyan officers take over all the gang-controlled territories and help reform and strengthen the Haitian police force to maintain these territories and win the confidence of the people in the long term. One year won’t be enough for such a mission to be successful, so it will not be a walk in-walk out mission.
American burden
What awaits them in Haiti? Of course danger to begin with. But I would add that they will get the best operational experience that will make them among the best in the world. The more operational you are, the better you become. They will EARN and LEARN. We, as security agents, do not train to grow fat in camps, we train to take the highest risks in protecting humanity. To be the best, you must accept the sacrifices that come with it.
To be honest, this is a US operation; they will provide the financial support, operational planning, intelligence and surveillance, logistical air support. Similarly, medical evacuation will be coordinated from the Pentagon, which is less than two hours away as the crow flies. So, our Kenyan forces will get eyes in the sky round the clock and this makes it easier for them if they are well co-ordinated and the Americans do their job in good faith.
Unfortunately, Kenya will have to carry the American burden labeled as an “occupation force”. It will carry the French stench and the failures and mistakes of all the foreign troops that have been in Haiti in the past. The secret will be to win the Haitian people on their side through community policing programmes in all terrains conquered.
Importantly, Kenyan troops must not to leave behind Kenyan babies like the accused foreign troops who went there in the past. The danger is, Kenya might have Haitians challenging them 18 years later in the long-distance athletics championships and Olympics. The resilient women in Haiti are stunning, and may pose a greater threat to our brothers.
The writer is Ex-military with French Foreign Legions and the Founder and CEO of Comcop, A safety security & risk management organisation