The National Police Service (NPS) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have vehemently denied recent claims regarding the deaths of Kenyan police officers in Haiti.
The two security organs dismissed the reports of Kenyan police officers’ deaths in Haiti as fake news.
#FakeNews Alert.- @NPSOfficial_KE https://t.co/geQTPb7QMV
— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) July 1, 2024
The clarification follows the arrival of the first contingent of Kenyan police officers in Haiti as part of a peacekeeping mission aimed at restoring order in the troubled Caribbean nation.
Over 200 Kenyan officers, out of an initial group of 400, landed in Haiti on June 25, 2024.
Kenya is leading a 2,500-member international security force tasked with combating the powerful gangs that have seized control of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Kenyan police officers began patrolling the streets of Port-au-Prince on June 28, 2024, in collaboration with their Haitian counterparts.
The Kenyan-led force is supported by other countries including Chile, Jamaica, Grenada, Paraguay, Burundi, Chad, Nigeria, and Mauritius, with more than 1,000 additional police officers set to join the mission.
The Kenyan officers were seen in the streets of Port-au-Prince with their Haitian counterparts on the same day that the country’s Prime Minister Garry Conille travelled to the US.
The United States is the principal financial backer of a Kenya-led international security force the United Nations has ratified to be sent to Haiti to help its police battle armed gangs that have plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis.
As armed Kenyan police in bullet-proof jackets and helmets patrolled the city in black armoured vans, Port-au-Prince gangs were baying for blood.
In a video shared on social media on June 26, 2024, gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier rallied armed men, telling them to fire on Kenyan police and pledging to fight to the death.
“I don’t care if they are white or black. If they’re not Haitian and they’re on Haitian soil, they’re invaders,” he said.
The humanitarian crisis in Haiti is severe, with over half a million people displaced by violence and around half the population facing food insecurity.
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