Haiti
Delays of Kenyan Police Deployment Further Reveal Malintentions of Foreign Interference
The plan to have
1,000 Kenyan police arrive in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti on May 23 to lead an armed foreign
intervention
force known as the Multinational Security Support Mission
(MSSM), their
arrival to coincide with the official state visit to Washington,
DC of
Kenyan President William Ruto, fell
through. The plan fell through because on May 17, Reuters
reports,
Kenya's High Court ordered that a lawsuit seeking to prevent the
government from deploying police to Haiti be served to top
government
officials. The court has scheduled the hearing of the case for
June 2.
The plaintiffs in the case,
Dr. Ekuru Aukot and Miruru Waweru, leaders of Thirdway Alliance,
a
Kenyan political party, argue that Ruto's agreement with Haiti
to
deploy police officers is in contempt of a January court order
that
deemed the deployment unconstitutional and illegal because there
was no
reciprocal agreement with
the Haitian side to receive such a force.
Following the January ruling, in an effort to satisfy the court and legitimize the deployment, Ruto signed a security deal with Haiti's then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry in March. In April, a Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) to replace Henry was put in place by the U.S., Canada and others. Henry resigned the day before the TPC was sworn in on April 25.
Speaking to the media, Aukot argued that the Kenyan government's decision to deploy its police to Haiti continues to violate the constitution because there is no valid agreement with a legitimate Haitian authority, no Haitian government which has made the request and agreed to the deployment of foreign troops in Haiti. He added, "As a Kenyan, I am looking at the fact that why should my country be used to go and clean up other people's messes, that was caused by the French, the Americans, and the Canadians...?"
In an interview with the BBC on May 27 Ruto said that he anticipated that the Kenyan police would be sent to Haiti in about three weeks as he now had a written agreement with the TPC for the deployment and that it has been approved by both houses of the Kenyan parliament. It remains to be seen what will happen with the court challenge to the deployment on June 2.
Ruto's visit to Washington is clearly seen as payment for services rendered to the U.S. It is the first state visit by an African head of state in nearly 20 years according to Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
An article published by Responsible Statecraft, the online journal of the Quincy Institute, a U.S. think tank, that prematurely announced the deployment, said: "[E]xperts argue that this military intervention is a short-sighted remedy to the broader crisis in Haiti. The current emergency is a result of deeply-entrenched inequality in Haitian society, an economic crisis, and an unaccountable government. Military interventions may quell violence for a limited time, but will do little to address its underlying causes."
Robert Fatton
Jr., a professor at the University of Virginia
cited by the journal, noted that even though it may be Kenyan
troops on
the ground in Haiti, this mission is ultimately engineered by
the U.S.
"After all, it was the U.S. that co-sponsored a resolution in
the
United Nations Security
Council requesting approval for Kenya to lead a multinational
peacekeeping operation, a move that followed unsuccessful
attempts to
persuade Canada and Brazil to do so," states the article. It
adds,
"Washington pledged its financial and logistical support for the
mission in a defense agreement with
Kenya signed in September 2023. It was then that Kenya committed
to
deploying 1,000 troops to Port-au-Prince."
The MSSM was authorized by the UN Security Council on October 2, 2023, under the pretext of stopping "gang violence" to justify yet more interference in Haiti's internal affairs. The MSSM also involves troops from several Caribbean countries trained by Canada, as well as forces from Bangladesh, Benin and Chad. Security Council approval means that the MSSM troops are authorized to use force, however the U.S. was not able to get approval for a fully sanctioned UN-led "peacekeeping" mission.
Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic and Policy Research called the MSSM "an unprecedented model for a peacekeeping operation." He pointed out that the UN is authorizing the multinational intervention but is not leading the mission itself, meaning the UN does not have direct oversight and responsibility for how the mission unfolds. "With Haiti's transitional government still on shaky ground, it's not clear who will be held accountable for the mission's execution," writes the journal.
Gazette Haiti reported that the UN has not yet received or confirmed rules of engagement for the MSSM. The newspaper wrote that unnamed U.S. government officials have given assurances to the Miami Herald that Kenya and the so-called transitional government of Haiti have reached an agreement on the rules of engagement, "However, this agreement has not yet been formalized in writing or submitted to the United Nations Security Council, a prerequisite for the commencement of the multinational security mission."
The newspaper adds, "Although the mission was presented as a Kenya-led deployment, congressional aides say that, in practice, it is a United States-led mission with multiple actors. The United States, which has pledged $300 million in support and has taken the lead in transporting troops to Port-au-Prince, provides 'the vast majority of funds.'"
According to Gazette Haiti, in a May 17 letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken obtained by the Miami Herald, Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul write that the Biden administration had used "a provision to combat drug trafficking" in the law to justify the transfer of funds to the mission." "In clear terms, the administration rushes to fund an undefined and indefinite intervention in Haiti without the approval of the Congress," they say.
Meanwhile, there is wide sympathy among Kenyans for the Haitian people, while the MSSM is regarded by many Kenyans as an "outsourced U.S. intervention" in Haiti, according to Professor Kenneth Ombongi, historian at the University of Nairobi.
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 35 - May 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS543513.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca