President William Ruto on Thursday assured the international community that Kenya would not relent in the fight against criminal gangs in Haiti.
While delivering a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York, the President revealed that his promise to have Kenya deploy police officers as part of the 2,500 Multinational Security Support (MSS) officers required in the Caribbean would be delivered before January 2025.
"I must emphasise that Kenya will deploy the additional contingent towards attaining the target of all 2,500 police officers by January next year. The progress so far in Haiti demonstrates that what once deemed mission impossible is indeed a present and undeniable possibility," he said.
In his speech, Ruto also subtly called out countries with superior security agencies for failing to offer sufficient support to aid in the Haiti mission.
He highlighted the plight facing Kenya and other nations that had fully immersed themselves in the Haiti mission and called on more powerful countries to offer their help, either directly or indirectly.
"Kenya and other Caribbean and African countries are ready to deploy but are hindered by insufficient equipment, logistics, and funding," the Head of State stated.
Ruto added: "I appeal to all member states to stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti by providing necessary support, either directly to Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) contributing countries or through the UN trust fund."
So far, countries like Canada and the USA have offered financial support towards the mission, with the latter committing KSh 21 billion (USD 160 million). This brought the total amount of US aid to the Carribean country to KSh 168 billion (USD 1.3 billion) since 2021.
Haiti has been gripped with the issue of organised criminal gangs, who control more than 80% of the nation's capital Port-au-Prince as well as key roads in the country.
The violence has seen at least 2500 people killed in the first three months alone, with hundreds of thousands displaced.
On Wednesday, Haitian interim prime minister Garry Conille threw a damper in hopes of securing the capital, saying they were "nowhere near winning this", referring to the ongoing war against gangs.
According to Conille, it was almost impossible to secure Port-au-Prince without help from outside forces.
The arrival of 400 Kenyan police officers to Haiti in May 2024 had a ripple effect as other nations including The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Chad, Jamaica, and Suriname also pledged to deploy soldiers to the mission.
