Kenya’s government puts deployment of police to Haiti on hold after chaos grips the Caribbean nation

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NAIROBI, Kenya, March 13, (AP): Kenya is halting plans to deploy at least 1,000 police officers to Haiti following the unprecedented violence that erupted in the Caribbean nation and the announcement by its Prime Minister Ariel Henry that he would resign once a presidential council is created, a Kenyan official said Tuesday.
Kenya had agreed last October to lead a UN-authorized international police force to Haiti, but the country’s top court in January ruled this was unconstitutional, in part because of a lack of reciprocal agreements on such deployments between the two countries.
Kenya’s President William Ruto said that he and Henry had witnessed the signing of the reciprocal agreements between Kenya and Haiti on March 1, clearing the path for the deployment.
Under the plan, the UN-backed multi-national police led by Kenyan officers was to help quell gang violence that has long plagued Haiti. But violence escalated sharply since Feb 29, with gunmen burning police stations, closing the main international airports and raiding the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.
Scores have been killed, and more than 15,000 are homeless after fleeing neighborhoods raided by gangs. Food and water are dwindling and the main port in the capital of Port-au-Prince remains closed, stranding dozens of containers with critical supplies.
After returning from a trip to Kenya where he had gone to salvage plans for the African country’s deployment, Henry has been locked out of his own country and has remained in Puerto Rico since last week.
“It is true the planned deployment of police officers has been put on hold,” Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Koriri Sing’oei said Tuesday.

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