First Wave of Kenyan Police Arrive in Haiti

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This has been a really long time coming. It was back in early March that Haiti’s Prime Minister, Ariel Henry left the country to negotiate a deal that would bring Kenyan police to Haiti to put an end to gang violence. The gangs took that opportunity to storm a major prison and free a bunch of their compatriots who had been put behind bars. The gangs created so much chaos that PM Henry was unable to fly back to Haiti because the gangs were attacking the Port-au-Prince airport.

It took several more weeks of chaos and violence but in late April, PM Henry resigned as the gangs had demanded. But by the end of May it seemed the arrival of the Kenyan police was imminent. And advance group flew into Haiti to secure the airport and get a look at the conditions on the ground. And then a few days later they left. It seemed unclear if this was a major or minor setback at the time.

Today, the first significant group of Kenyan police set foot in Haiti.

Foreign law enforcement officers began arriving in Haiti on Tuesday, more than a year and a half after the prime minister there issued a plea to other countries for help to stop the rampant gang violence that has upended the Caribbean nation…

Now an initial group of 400 Kenyan police officers are arriving in Haiti to take on the gangs, an effort largely organized by the Biden administration. The Kenyans are the first to deploy of an expected 2,500-member force of international police officers and soldiers from eight countries…

The U.S. military has flown more than 90 flights into Haiti to prepare for the mission, carrying more than 2,600 tons of supplies. Civilian contractors have been building sleeping quarters for the Kenyan officers at Toussaint Louverture Airport in Port-au-Prince.

In order to fly the US military planes in, the government had to clear houses near the airport which had been used by gangs to shoot at planes. But the most prominent of the gang leaders, who goes by the name Barbecue (pictured above), has made it clear that he considers the Kenyans an invading force. And because the Kenyan mission is largely funded by the US, he sees this as a US-led invasion.

He’s not wrong about the facts of who is organizing and paying for most of this. The problem is that Barbecue and the other gangs have been terrorizing and murdering people for their own benefit for years. They aren’t heroes of the people. In fact, most Haitians hate them and have organized their own militia to fight and kill them whenever possible. The gangs aren’t fighting for independence, they are just fighting for their right to continue fleecing and killing the local populace.

In a recent video, Jimmy Chérizier, a former elite police officer who now leads a powerful gang federation known as G9 Family and Allies, addressed the new prime minister for the first time.

“You did not distribute weapons in working-class neighborhoods,” said Chérizier, best known as Barbecue. “Do not play into the hands of traditional politicians and businessmen, who used violence for political and economic ends, and who now want to recover, by force, the weapons they had distributed. The problem that exists today can only be resolved through dialogue.”

This is just a stalling tactic. The gangs had no interest in dialogue over violence when they were taking over Port-au-Prince or kidnapping local people for money. If they are interested in dialogue now it’s only because they prefer that to being shot dead in the street, which is a real possibility for a lot of these gang members now.

As the 240-seat Boeing 787 aircraft taxied the runway, the contentment of even airport workers could be heard as they called gang members out by named and warned, “We’re coming for you.” The Kenyan cops, from several terrorist-fighting elite forces in the East African nation, soon descended the stairwell as other officers waved their nation’s flag.

Then in an exercise that many Haitians are now debating, the Kenyans performed a brief military drill to the delight of Haitian police and journalists.

Here’s hoping the Kenyans can regain control of the streets in the comings months. Their mission to Haiti is expected to last at least a year.