Photo credit: BBC
Although police from Kenya have been deployed to Haiti, the gangs terrorizing the country have warned they would resist the deployment of the Kenyan policemen, who are better armed and equipped than their hosts.
The Washington Post reports that hundreds of Kenyan police officers were deployed to Haiti to beat back the heavily armed paramilitaries that control 80% of the capital, allow new elections and give Haitians a chance to breathe.
However, the gangs have remained unperturbed, and they are still burning houses, attacking police stations and killing with impunity.
“I don’t feel the effect of the Kenyans’ presence. Nothing has changed in my life, and I don’t have increased confidence in my security…I don’t understand why the Kenyans are here,” Invika Francois, a Haitian educator and feminist, said.
Gangs have tightened their grip on the capital, busting open prisons, shutting down seaports, taking over fuel terminals and the international airport.
Less than three weeks after the Kenyan officers arrived, frustrations are growing. Haitians are saying the deployment has had no discernible effect on security. Police officers say they’ve not been looped into a plan to restore order.
HaitiansDiego Da Rin, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, said, “Haitians have high expectations of foreign force. They say that if…the mission doesn’t start conducting operations soon that lead to tangible changes and victories against the gangs, they might start to frown upon (its) presence.”
However, officials from Haiti, Kenya, and the United States counter that it should proceed as it should.
The head of the Haitian National Police, Normil Rameau, said he’s met with his Kenyan counterpart =several times for “evaluation and planning.”
Rameau said, “There is neither a set day nor time for operations. The population may wake up one day to find that operations have taken place and bandits have been stopped or neutralized. For strategic reasons, we cannot reveal how this will happen.”
