Nairobi, Kenya — An advance team of Kenyan police officials who were assessing preparedness before a multinational force is deployed to quell violence in Haiti is returning home after the planned deployment was delayed by logistics.
The team will return from Haiti on Monday after recommending a delay in deployment that was later announced by the president.
A senior Kenyan official who asked not to be identified because he is not the official spokesperson said the bases are still under construction and crucial resources, including vehicles, are needed before the deployment of Kenya’s first 200 police officers can take place. .
The deployment was due to begin this week, but President William Ruto said it would be delayed by three weeks.
The base from which the police will operate is about 70% complete and secure warehouses are needed for the armory, according to the senior official, who was in the advance team.
The officials arrived in Haiti on Tuesday, met with Haitian police on Thursday and with the transitional presidential council on Friday.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday expressed deep gratitude to Ruto, who was on a state visit, for the deployment to help quell gang violence in Haiti.
The United States has agreed to contribute $300 million to a multinational force that will include 1,000 police officers from Kenya and others from Jamaica, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda and other countries.
Haiti has endured poverty, political instability and natural disasters for decades. International intervention in Haiti has a complicated history. A U.N.-sanctioned stabilization mission in Haiti that began in June 2004 was marred by a sexual abuse scandal and the introduction of cholera, which killed nearly 10,000 people. The mission ended in October 2017.
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