Kenya has agreed to deploy 1,000 police officers to try and restore law and order in Haiti where a failed state has led to complete anarchy.
This is the right thing to do. Most Haitians came from Africa so Africa should support them as they try to sort out their problems.
But the mission is extremely dangerous. There are over 100 gangs operating in Haiti so the Kenya police will be heavily outnumbered unless more countries send police there. Haiti only has 10,000 police for a country of 11 million whereas Kenya has 106,000 police for a country of 50 million people.
The Kenya government should not send police to Haiti until two things are done.
Firstly, the mission needs to be officially mandated by the UN. It cannot be just an American operation. The UN also needs to beef up the foreign police so that they substantially outnumber the gangs.
Secondly, the police need to be able to undertake offensive operations (as in Somalia) against the heavily armed gangs of Haiti. If they can only undertake defensive operations (as in eastern Congo), the Kenya police will achieve little and will risk getting massacred.
Quote of the day: "The only way of knowing a person is to love them without hope."
Walter Benjamin
The German philosopher committed suicide on September 27, 1940
