Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Korir Sing’oei, has defended Kenya’s controversial security mission in Haiti, describing the deployment as a successful intervention that restored stability and pushed back violent gangs before the final contingent of Kenyan police officers returned home last month.

Sing’oei has said the Kenya-led operation had achieved significant progress despite the daunting security and logistical challenges that confronted the multinational force.

“In the short period that Kenyan Police were in Haiti, we were able to stabilise Haiti,” Sing’oei said, speaking during a TV interview on Wednesday night, May 13, 2026.

“We were able to push back the gangs, take control of the strategic installations, train the Haitian police and bring peace to a level where some level of normalcy was restored.”

His remarks came weeks after Kenya officially concluded its 22-month deployment to the Caribbean nation.

The final group of 150 officers arrived in Nairobi aboard a Kenya Airways flight on April 28, 2026, marking the end of one of Kenya’s most ambitious foreign security operations in recent history.

The officers were received at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja.

Kenya first deployed police personnel to Haiti under the multinational security support mission aimed at helping the Haitian government regain control from heavily armed gangs that had overrun large parts of Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.

Government officials have portrayed the operation as a landmark peacekeeping effort that helped secure key infrastructure, including ports and airports, while reopening access to schools, hospitals and commercial districts that had previously been paralysed by violence.

But the mission also faced persistent criticism both domestically and internationally.

Questions were raised about funding shortfalls, troop shortages and the risks associated with deploying Kenyan police officers into one of the world’s most volatile urban conflicts.

Although Kenya initially pledged to maintain 1,000 officers on the ground, deployment numbers peaked at roughly 800 personnel.

Financial constraints also burdened the operation, which struggled to secure its full projected budget.

The mission came at a human cost. Three Kenyan officers — Samuel Tommoy, Benedict Kafiru and Kennedy Zuv — lost their lives during the deployment.

Still, Sing’oei argued that the intervention had left Haiti more stable than before Kenya’s arrival and demonstrated Nairobi’s growing role in international peace and security operations.

The conclusion of the Kenyan-led mission now paves the way for a transition to a newly established international force known as the Gang Suppression Force, backed by the United States and several Caribbean partners.

Unlike the previous framework, the new force is expected to work more directly alongside Haitian security agencies in offensive operations against criminal groups.

For Kenya, the Haiti mission represented both a diplomatic gamble and an assertion of international influence, signalling the East African nation’s ambition to position itself as a key security actor beyond the African continent.

Whether the gains achieved during the deployment will endure remains uncertain. But Kenyan officials insist the operation helped create at least a temporary opening for Haiti’s fragile institutions to recover.

“Our officers made sacrifices, but they helped restore hope and order where there had been collapse,” Sing’oei suggested.