A Kenyan delegation met and held talks with the newly elected head of Haiti’s transitional presidential Laurent Saint-Cyr over the operations against surging criminal gangs.
The delegation was led by Joseph Boinnet, who President William Ruto's deputy national security adviser and the Kenyan Consul General to Haiti Noor Gabow.
The head of the Multinational Security Support Mission Godfrey Otunge also attended the meeting on Thursday.
Officials said Saint-Cyr was happy with the MSS operations so far even as gangs that are fighting to take control of the capital.
Boinnet is in Haiti for a review mission on the performance of the Kenya police officers.
The 800 officer lead the MSS team to contain the gangs.
There are plans to send more Kenyan police officers to Haiti. The Kenyan team has been in Haiti since June 25, last year and its mandate is set for discussion, review and renewal by the UN next month in New York, officials said.
Saint-Cyr, a wealthy businessman was on August 7 voted the head of Haiti’s transitional presidential council.
He was tasked with restoring order after a top gang leader vowed to overthrow the government.
Saint-Cyr’s appointment at the council’s heavily guarded office in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where criminal gangs control 90 per cent of the neighbourhoods, marked the first time that members of Haiti’s private sector serve in the rotating presidency and the post of prime minister, two positions that share the country’s executive duties.
He had his start at a local insurance company while Haiti’s current prime minister once ran an internet firm.
MSS said officers thwarted potential attacks by around-the-clock patrols and by boosting the number of armed forces in certain neighborhoods and around critical infrastructure.
“Armed gangs had plotted to disrupt national stability and render the country ungovernable,” it said.
Saint-Cyr will be working with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, a one-time president of an internet company in Haiti and also a former president of the country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
US federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced criminal charges against Jimmy Cherizier, the Haitian gang leader known as "Barbecue" who leads an alliance of gangs that control a good part of Port-au-Prince.
The indictment alleges that Cherizier, as well as US citizen Bazile Richardson, 48, solicited funds from Haitian diaspora community in the US to help pay gang members and buy firearms in violation of US sanctions.
Cherizier, a former police officer who is at large in Haiti, leads the group Viv Ansanm (Live Together).
The US is offering $5m (Sh645,000,000) for information leading to his arrest. The group has been accused of multiple murders, kidnappings and attacks on infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in the country has sunk to new levels. UN reports estimate that 5.7 million people – more than half of Haiti's population – are facing acute food insecurity and there are over one million internally displaced people.
The delegation was led
by Joseph Boinnet, who President William Ruto's deputy national security adviser and the Kenyan Consul General to Haiti Noor Gabow.
The head of the Multinational Security Support Mission Godfrey Otunge also attended the meeting on Thursday.
Officials
said Saint-Cyr was happy with the MSS operations so far even as gangs that are
fighting to take control of the capital.
Boinnet
is in Haiti for a review mission on the performance of the Kenya police officers.
The 800 officer lead the MSS team to contain the
gangs.
There are plans to send more Kenyan police officers to Haiti. The Kenyan team has been in Haiti since June 25, last year and its mandate is set for discussion, review and renewal by the UN next month in New York, officials said.
Saint-Cyr, a wealthy businessman was on August 7 voted the head of Haiti’s transitional presidential council.
He was tasked with
restoring order after a top gang leader vowed to overthrow the government.
Saint-Cyr’s appointment at the council’s heavily guarded office in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where criminal gangs control 90 per cent of the neighbourhoods, marked the first time that members of Haiti’s private sector serve in the rotating presidency and the post of prime minister, two positions that share the country’s executive duties.
He had his start at a local insurance company while Haiti’s current prime minister once ran an internet firm.
MSS said officers thwarted potential attacks by around-the-clock patrols and by boosting the number of armed forces in certain neighborhoods and around critical infrastructure.
“Armed gangs had plotted to disrupt national stability and render the country ungovernable,” it said.
Saint-Cyr will be working with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, a one-time president of an internet company in Haiti and also a former president of the country’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
US federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced criminal charges against Jimmy Cherizier, the Haitian gang leader known as "Barbecue" who leads an alliance of gangs that control a good part of Port-au-Prince.
The indictment alleges that Cherizier, as well as US citizen Bazile Richardson, 48, solicited funds from Haitian diaspora community in the US to help pay gang members and buy firearms in violation of US sanctions.
Cherizier, a former police officer who is at
large in Haiti, leads the group Viv Ansanm (Live Together).
The US is offering $5m (Sh645,000,000) for information leading to his arrest. The group has been accused of multiple murders, kidnappings and attacks on infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in the
country has sunk to new levels. UN reports estimate that 5.7 million people –
more than half of Haiti's population – are facing acute food insecurity and
there are over one million internally displaced people.
