A group of Haiti nationals residing in the United States on Thursday staged demonstrations outside Kenya’s embassy in the USA.
The Haitians protested against President William Ruto's decision to deploy a thousand troops for a peacekeeping mission in the war-torn country.
The Caribbeans could be spotted holding placards with written messages to Kenya's head of state as they demanded that Ruto stop his planned deployment to Haiti.
While marching around the Kenyan embassy in the US, the rowdy demonstrators could be heard chanting President Ruto's name as they demanded he reverse the decision (to deploy Kenyan troops to Haiti).
The protestors accused the US government of instigating gang violence in Haiti and that it was ironic for America to similarly sponsor a peace-keeping mission in the war-ravaged country.
"What Ruto is about to do is to invade Haiti. Haitians say no to occupation," the protestors said as they vented their frustration on the imminent deployment.
The protests came barely minutes after President Ruto and US Head of State Joe Biden held a joint presser to affirm their commitment to ending violence in Haiti.
Ruto, while commenting on the deployment, said the mission was approved by Kenyans and not the US as alleged and that Kenya was ready to save Haitians from the gang violence.
"Kenya's participation in Haiti is not about what happened in the past. The USA cannot commit Kenya to Haiti. It is we, the people of Kenya who made this decision," Ruto stated.
"I am the President of Kenya and it is me who made the decision. It is the role of the people of Kenya to commit their troops using their structure, we have gone through all the processes in Kenya," he added.
Joe Biden, while issuing clarity on the deployment, noted the US could not be involved directly in the mission because it could have been misinterpreted and thus it rallied Kenya to help end the violence in the Caribbean nation.
"We concluded that if the US deploys its forces to the northern hemisphere, it raises all kinds of questions that can be easily misrepresented by what is happening in Haiti," Biden clarified.
