Kenyan police face insults and skepticism as pressure mounts

When the first contingent of 200 elite Kenyan police officers flew into Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, on June 25, They safely disembarked from their Kenyan Airways flight They wear helmets and combat gear, carry their weapons and hold high the Kenyan national flag.

They sang in Swahili while they have psychologically charged themselves on the airport runway, how did a second batch do it of 200 Kenyan officers who landed three weeks later.

“Let’s go!” and “We’re moving!” came the shouts.

Hopes were high that Kenyan police would bring much-needed strength to Haiti’s struggling Police Nationale (PNH) as it tries to contain a deadly offensive by Haitian criminal gangs that have terrorized the capital and large parts of the country for more than three years.

The Kenyans form the forward core of a multinational force under a United Nations mandate that will seek to restore peace in Haiti.

They were initially welcomed and celebrated by Haitian government leaders and also by many Haitian media outlets.

Radio Independante FM published on X a welcome greeting in the country’s Creole language for Kenyans, saying:

“Haiti is the country of all Africans. Because you are black, Haiti is your home… You Kenyan soldiers are home and you should be welcome to help us fight these wasteful people. [the gangs] that prevent us from living in our country.”

Yet weeks after the long-awaited deployment, which had already been delayed by legal disputes in Kenya and logistical problems, many Haitians appear frustrated and disillusioned that law enforcement, along with their colleagues in the Haitian police, have not intervened more quickly and decisively against the gangs, their leaders and their known hideouts.

In Haitian media and social media, there is an increase in frustrated comments, expressing impatience and disappointment.

There was a chorus of calls for “actions, not words” and “concrete results.”

Some of the harshest criticism accuses Kenyans of “theatricality” and being simple “tourists”.

Critics point out that – despite High-profile joint patrols by Kenyan and Haitian police in Port-au-Prince where they have He shot alleged gang members – Since the mission began in Kenya, gangs appear to have strengthened their grip on the south-western and north-eastern suburbs of the capital.

Gang members have attacked and burned or partially destroyed police stations and continue to loot major highways leading from the capital and inland.

There is a sense that Kenyan forces have been too slow to make their presence felt.

“What are Kenyans waiting for to take action against bandits?,” asked local broadcaster AyiboPost in an article published in X on July 11fifteen days after the landing of the East Africans.

About two weeks later, the online news website Le Filet Info commented in a targeted manner: “The presence of the Kenyan police in the country fails to scare off the bandits.

“They continue to massacre members of the civilian population.”

The Kenyan contingent has already recorded its first victim since arriving in Haiti.

On July 30, a Kenyan policeman was wounded in the shoulder in Port-au-Prince when a Kenyan patrol attacked gang members.

That same day, Haitian police chief Rameau Normil, accompanied by Kenyan forces commander Godfrey Otunge, appeared to try to counter unfavorable local media commentary by announcing that more than 100 “bandits” had been killed by Haitian and Kenyan police in operations conducted under a state of emergency declared in the areas most affected by gangs since mid-July.

These statements, however, have failed to allay public skepticism.

Confidence has not been improved by the online publication of videos showing senior Haitian government officials, as well as Kenyan and Haitian police escorting them, hastily retreating on July 29, amid a hail of gunfirefrom the abandoned general hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince that they had just visited.

Both Haitian and Kenyan police have said the facility is firmly under their control.

Despite such criticism, Haiti’s interim Prime Minister, Garry Conille he told BBC HARDtalk welcomed the support, considering the Haitian police’s staffing shortage.

“We need help… but it’s coming too slowly and Haitians are getting impatient,” he acknowledged.

The prime minister also dismissed those who questioned the deployment of Kenyan officers, given their harsh handling of recent anti-government uprisings at home.

“The compliance with our laws and our operating procedures has been very, very good and we are very happy with the support we are receiving,” he said, stressing that the role of Kenyans is to support and accompany the police, not to operate independently.

Nevertheless, Kenyans have faced open defiance from major Haitian gang leaders.

Just a few days after the first group of Kenyans arrived, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, an avowed leader of the “Viv Ansanm” (Let’s Live Together) gang coalition, appeared in a provocative video lasting nearly eight minutes, posted on X.

Leading his masked soldiers in a strutting, singing war dance through his stronghold of Delmas 6, they held their automatic weapons aloft.

“Here is Kenya [the Kenyans]bullets [for them]” at one point they sang in Creole.

Other gang leaders, including Wilson “Lanmo Sanjou” Joseph, the leader of the “400 Mawozo” gang, and the young gang leader “Ti Bebe Bougoy”, were also arrested. appearing in videos mocking both Haitian and Kenyan authoritieswhile gangs continue to boast about their attacks.

In mid-July, the Kenyan contingent of the multinational force left your own account X, @MSSMHaitiin an attempt to set the tone for the public narrative of their mission in Haiti.

Daily reports of Kenyans’ activities range from welcoming visiting dignitaries to their base, to lecturing on human rights, to upbeat accounts of “reassurance” patrols on the streets of Port-au-Prince.

But the determined optimism of the @MSSMHaiti stream, in particular references to “significant success” and the “gradual return to normalcy” appear to have angered many in Haiti.

Some Haitians have criticized the Kenyan reports as exaggerated at best and “propaganda” at worst.