Kenyan Police Launch Historic Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti Amid Domestic Unrest

The first group of Kenyan police has arrived in Haiti to lead a peacekeeping mission aimed at curbing gang violence exacerbated by the 2021 assassination of the president. Meanwhile, unrest grows in Kenya, where security forces clash with protesters over newly approved tax legislation.

The first planeload of Kenyan police arrived in the Haitian capital on Tuesday to launch a peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country that has been ravaged by gang violence- just as deadly protests overwhelmed security forces at home.

Uniformed Kenyan police disembarked from a Kenya Airways plane with weapons in hand in Port-au-Prince, while in Nairobi police opened fire on demonstrators trying to storm the parliament, with at least five protesters killed, dozens wounded and sections of the building set ablaze. Kenyan lawmakers earlier on Tuesday had approved legislation to raise taxes.

In Haiti, the Kenyan police have been charged with leading a mission to tackle growing gangland violence that has caused a severe humanitarian crisis. The instability surged after the 2021 assassination of the president. As a line of Kenyan police streamed out of the plane on Tuesday morning, a small crowd, mostly airport personnel, greeted them on the tarmac. Some of the helmet-wearing officers unfurled a Kenyan flag and danced in a group.

The Kenyan police are expected to be joined by officers from Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, Chad and Bangladesh, which together are slated to form a 2,500-strong peacekeeping mission funded primarily by the United States. Last July, the African nation volunteered to lead an international force to stem the latest wave of violence to afflict the former French colony, where gangs who control most of the capital have carried out widespread killings, kidnappings and sexual violence.

But the deployment has been repeatedly delayed by court challenges and a deterioration of the security situation in Haiti. On Monday, Kenyan President William Ruto held a departure ceremony for 400 officers who will be the first contingent to deploy to Haiti.

"This mission is one of the most urgent, important and historic in the history of global solidarity. It is a mission to affirm the universal values of the community of nations, a mission to take a stand for humanity," Ruto said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)