The United Nations (UN) has addressed concerns over the multinational police force mission to Haiti after the High Court blocked the deployment of the National Police Service (NPS) to the Caribean country which has been marred with gang violence.
Addressing the media over the UN's stand on the matter, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric, stated that the UN would support any multinational force that will be formed to address the humanitarian crisis in Haiti.
Dujarric elaborated that a force urgently needs to be deployed to Haiti owing to the humanitarian crisis.
However, he acknowledged that Kenya was still in talks with Haiti over the potential deployment of the police. Kenya is yet to give a clear way forward on the matter amidst an appeal against the High Court decision.
"We understand there are discussions between Haiti and Kenya. All these discussions are not going on through the UN, because it’s not a UN peacekeeping force.
"There is a trust fund that was set up as part of the resolution. We hope to support whatever multinational force comes into being, and we hope that donors give generously so the force can be deployed as quickly as possible," he stated.
High Court Judge Chacha Mwita on January 26, declared the deployment of police to Haiti as unconstitutional.
The judge noted that the National Security Council (NSC) did not have powers to deploy police outside Kenya.
However, amidst the government's discontent over the court ruling, senior government officials have been seeking assistance from development partners over the police deployment.
On Thursday, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica, Kamina Smith, over the partnership in the mission.
"Discussions centred on issues of mutual interests on bilateral and multilateral levels, with a focus on the Multinational Security Support Mission for Haiti.
"They welcomed the appeal by the United Nations Secretary-General for immediate deployment and underscored the urgency as a matter of necessity to help prevent the situation in Haiti from escalating into civil war," read a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
