- The United Nations Security Council Monday night endorsed the deployment of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission to Haiti.
- President Ruto advocated for the deployment saying it's Kenya's moral obligation as a country with peacekeeping credentials to do duty and restore peace in Haiti.
Image: LEDAMA OLEKINA/X
Kenya's resolution to send police officers to Haiti to battle what has been described as fearsome gangs continues to elicit reactions from the elite.
President William Ruto on Tuesday affirmed that the mission cannot be aborted.
The United Nations Security Council Monday night endorsed the deployment of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission to Haiti.
The move paved the way for Kenya to send 1,000 armed police it pledged to deploy to the Caribbean country.
A section of leaders has however described the move as a suicide mission for the security personnel.
Security analysts say the Kenya police are likely to encounter trouble countering the marauding gangs due to their limited understanding of the terrain.
Narok Senator Ledama Olekina is among those opposed to the deployment on the basis of ill-preparedness of the officers whose welfare he says hasn't even been fully catered for on home tuff.
"For the last two weeks, I have received a minimum of 100 messages from police officers expressing their ordeal of languishing in poverty. Others stop me on the road to explain their challenges especially accessing their comprehensive medical covers," he said in a statement Tuesday evening.
"Yet today we are here ‘celebrating’ the UN Security Council resolution to send our men and women in uniform to Haiti for a “security mission” If we can’t even get their health insurance right!
"Are we really going to get anything else right for them? We need to dust our floor first before offering to vacuum other people’s floors!" he said.
Thirteen out of the 15 members of the UN Council, including Africa’s Mozambique, Ghana and Gabon approved the MSS Mission, marking the situation in Haiti as a threat to global peace and security.
The resolution needed the endorsement of the permanent UN Security Council members including the US, France, UK, Russia and China.
China and Russia, however, boycotted voting but their decision did not affect the resolution.
President Ruto strongly advocated for the deployment of Kenya troops saying it's a moral obligation for her a nation with peacekeeping credentials to do duty and restore peace in Haiti.
He drew parallels between Haiti's suffering to Kenya's colonial experience which saw nations that were sympathetic to her situation support her quest for justice and freedom.
"In our struggle, we always had friends, not an overwhelming multitude of allies yet nevertheless, true, loyal and determined friends," he said.
"The people of Haiti, our dear friends, today stand in need. It is our fundamental moral obligation to be their friend indeed by standing with them. This is why we cannot turn away from Haiti."
Ruto first made the appeal to the UN General Assembly on September 21 where he championed a resolution under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter to boost the capacity of the Haitian police force.
In his address on Tuesday following the UN resolution, Ruto rallied the international community to support the mission saying doing nothing in the face of human suffering in Haiti is out of question.
Ruto called for reparative action including debt cancellation for Haiti to free the country "from her ugly past" that binds her even today.
"If any people ever deserved a break, they must be the people of Haiti," Ruto said.
Kenya will receive $100 million (Sh14.7 billion) from the United States of America in support of its mission in Haiti.
On September 27, Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua said Kenya will deploy the 1000 police officers latest January 1 next year once the UN approves the mission.