Kenya’s president William Ruto arrived in Haiti on Saturday, claiming that because of a Kenyan police force battling gangs, “the country’s security has significantly improved”.
Mr Ruto’s claim was contradicted by a United Nations security expert, who just days earlier warned that violence in the country was worsening as gangs expanded their control over the Caribbean nation.
Mr Ruto stepped off the plane, passing armed officers on a small patch of red carpet flanked by other officials.
He headed to a Kenyan base at the airport where he met with police tasked with battling the gangs and several high-ranking Haitian and Canadian officials.
“You have represented the people of Kenya with courage, professionalism, selflessness, compassion and sufficiency,” Mr Ruto told Kenyan police surrounding him as he stood at a podium.
He claimed that Kenyan forces had boosted security infrastructure and allowed displaced Haitians to return home after fleeing violence, though many Haitians say violence is just as bad, if not worse than it was when the police were deployed in June.
Mr Ruto said he hoped to listen to members of the Kenyan forces deployed and hear about their progress before he heads to New York to meet with UN leaders.
They are grappling with how to best support resource-strapped Kenyan and Jamaican forces who have struggled to contain the gangs terrorising the Caribbean nation.
Kenya was the first nation to send forces as part of a larger effort by the UN to offer international support to Haiti, which has spiralled into conflict and political turmoil since the 2021 assassination of president Jovenel Moise.
Meanwhile, UN human rights expert William O’Neill, who visited Haiti this week, warned on Friday that gang violence is only spreading across Haiti and that Haiti’s National Police still lack the “logistical and technical capacity” to fight gangs, which continue to encroach on new territory.
“Humanitarian consequences are dramatic,” he said, and warned of galloping inflation, a lack of basic goods and ”internally displaced people further increasing the vulnerability of the population, particularly children and women”.
The security mission is expected to reach a total of 2,500 personnel, with the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin and Chad also pledging to send police and soldiers, although it was not clear when that would happen.
