Haiti gang crisis: Kenyan police face taunts and scepticism as pressure mounts

Pressure is mounting on Kenyan police officers to deliver on their promise to help bring Haiti’s rampant gangs under control, six weeks after setting foot in the Caribbean nation.

When the first contingent of 200 elite Kenyan police officers flew into Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince on 25 June, they filed confidently off their Kenyan Airways flight, external clad in helmets and combat gear, carrying their weapons and holding high the Kenyan national flag.

They chanted in Swahili while they psyched themselves up, external on the airport tarmac, as did a second batch, external of 200 Kenyan officers who landed three weeks later.

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

Hopes were high that the Kenyan police would bring much-needed muscle to Haiti’s beleaguered National Police (PNH), as they struggled to hold back a deadly offensive by Haitian criminal gangs that have terrorised the capital and large swathes of the country for more than three years.

The Kenyans are the advance guard core of a UN-mandated, multinational force that will seek to restore peace to Haiti.

They were initially welcomed and feted by Haitian government leaders, and by many in Haiti’s media too.

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

“Haiti is the country of all Africans. Since you are black Haiti is your home… You Kenyan soldiers are at home and must be welcomed to help fight these wasters [the gangs] that prevent us from living in our country”.

However, weeks after the much anticipated deployment, which had already been delayed by legal challenges in Kenya and logistical hitches, many Haitians seem frustrated and disillusioned that the force, along with their Haitian police colleagues, have not moved more quickly and decisively against the gangs, their bosses and their known hideouts.