Haiti: Unexplained Delay in Kenyan Police Deployment

On Thursday, the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, was put on hold because of the postponement of the flight that was to take them to the Caribbean country.

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The decision coincides with the arrival of the Kenyan president, William Ruto, in Washington, the capital of the United States, the country that is bearing part of the costs of the African contingent that will operate under the umbrella of the UN against the criminal gangs that control part of the Haitian capital.

For the moment, there are no details of the new date for the arrival of the Kenyan contingent in the Haitian capital, scheduled in principle for tomorrow, Thursday. However, it is still possible as the distance between the two points can be covered by air in about 10 hours.

The formation and authorization of the Kenyan contingent proved difficult, in particular because of opposition in the African country's parliament due to the lack of a mutual military assistance agreement between the two countries.

In the end, the stumbling block was overcome by negotiations in the legislature and the 2,500 members of the contingent.

This contingent includes police and administrative personnel, whose mission is to neutralize the armed gangs that have become the de facto power that reigns supreme in the troubled Caribbean country.