Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi on Saturday, June 1, denied reports that the National Police Service (NPS) would train Haitian security officers in Kenya.
This was after reports that an advance team sent to Haiti had recommended that 2,000 police officers from the Caribbean nation be taken through a crash course in law enforcement and combat.
Mudavadi, who doubles as the Foreign Cabinet Secretary, stated that the only deal Kenya had agreed on was deploying 1,000 police officers to Haiti.
“We have not reached that level at all and if they are going to be trained, we are not going to hide anything whatsoever,” he stated.
“We will make it public the way we have made it public that we shall be engaged under the United Nations framework for deployment.”
While not ruling out NPS training Haitian police officers, Mudavadi remarked that he would brief the nation should the recommendations be adopted.
“It will not be secret but as we speak now, there are no such 2,000 people training in Kenya,” the PCS remarked.
Mudavadi further defended the decision to first deploy 200 police officers to Haiti instead of the agreed 1,000.
He noted that this was not a singular mission but a multinational programme encompassing many countries and sanctioned by the UN with funding from the United States.
As such, Kenya would first send a small contingent of police officers who would join security officers from other countries.
Other countries willing to join the multinational forces include Chile, Jamaica, Grenada, Paraguay, Burundi, Chad, Nigeria, and Mauritius.
On the advice of top security officials, Mudavadi remarked Kenya would continue adding boots on the ground until the agreed 1,000 troops were realised.
