A Kenyan police officer Godfrey Otunge in an interview on Monday shared the progress and strategy of the ongoing peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
Otunge is among the first officers who were deployed to lead the mission in the Caribbean nation as Kenya prepares to send other officers. He is the head of the police mission in Haiti.
He revealed that the officers in Haiti were committed to ensuring peace was restored in Haiti by working closely with the Haitian authorities.
"We have a job that we are committed to do. We intend to achieve this by working closely with Haitian authorities and local and international partners dedicated to a new Haiti," he remarked.
He emphasised that there was no room for failure while dealing with the gangs that had taken over a majority of the country.
In the interview, Otunge explained that the last 15 days had been a period of evaluation and planning on how to neutralise the gangs.
However, the police boss declined to reveal further details on the mission or the strategies to be used for security reasons and strategic concerns.
"The job is to ensure the restoration of peace throughout Haiti. We must do this job to the best of our ability," he emphasised.
Otunge's remarks came after the officers announced that they had taken control of the largest hospital, the Hospital of the State University of Haiti also known as the General Hospital, which was earlier controlled by gangs.
The new head of the Haiti National Police Rameau Normil revealed on Monday that police seized the hospital on Sunday night as the efforts to restore more health facilities continue.
This move will grant access to patients who were forced to cut their treatments short after gangs torched vandalised and destroyed multiple health facilities in Port au Prince.
Normil revealed that he had reinforced a number of police substations after two police officers were attacked and killed. This was part of the plan to secure these areas and arrest the gangs.
"One day people are going to wake up and see that the bandits have been stopped by the police," Normil reassured.
Since the deployment in June, Kenyan police officers have been spotted in the streets of Port au Prince manning the areas.
