Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua said on Tuesday that Kenya is sending a police mission to Haiti because the Caribbean country requested assistance.
Mutua told a press conference in Nairobi that Kenya is a popular choice for peacekeeping missions, having previously sent troops to Namibia, Sierra Leone, East Timor, South Sudan, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“It is because of Kenya’s stellar performance that the Government of Haiti requested Kenya to lead a police mission to help stabilise and bring order to their country,” the minister said.
Dr. Mutua assured Haiti that Kenya is alive to the pain the country currently going through, and will step up to help.
“We assure the people of Haiti that we feel your pain. When you cry out, we feel it and when your children suffer. Your pain is our pain. We shall stand with you at this difficult time and walk the journey towards peace together because you deserve to live a secure and prosperous life.”
Kenya has offered to send 1,000 security personnel to Haiti, where armed gangs have taken control of vast swaths of land as a result of intersecting public health, political, and economic crises.
Since the assassination of President Jovenel Mose in July 2021, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country has been thrown into chaos.
