With all the insecurity in Kenya, why would a government risk lives for a doomed mission?
In a rare gesture of bravery, people with disabilities on March 6, 2024 came out in their numbers in one of Kenya’s President William Ruto’s political bastions, Baringo County, to demonstrate against persistent bandit attacks.
Like their counterparts affected by the menace, one message was clear, Kenya has no business keeping peace in the far-flung Haiti, when insecurity was rampant in the East African state.
The Baringo residents were particularly pained to bury a blind primary school headteacher, one of the latest victims of the cattle rustlers.
Thomas Kibitz, the Kagir Primary School headteacher, was on motorcycle with his wife and child when he fell victim to bandits. The family was reportedly heading to an Annual General Meeting (AGM) at a secondary school where the man’s other children learn.
Instead, President Ruto is unrelenting in his pursuit of the Haiti mission. Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry arrived in Nairobi on February 29, 2024 for talks on activating a Kenyan-led multinational security support mission in his Caribbean nation. However, he has been unable to return home due to heightened anarchy.
Huge swathes of northern Rift Valley and north eastern Kenya, predominantly inhabited by pastoral communities, have for as long as Kenya has existed, been the playground for bandits.
However, in the run-up to the heated 2022 presidential campaigns, Ruto then deputy president, and who had fallen out with his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta, introduced a new dimension to the challenge.
Coming out volubly on the insecurity in the mostly marginal counties, Ruto asserted that the Uhuru government had refused to eliminate the menace in order to cast him (Ruto) in bad light, since the problem afflicted mostly his support bases.
To wild cheers, Ruto upon ascending to power, promised to spare no efforts in eliminating the menace. Then followed a series of deployment of several special security units to deal with the problem.
On numerous occasions, Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki has put up shows of bravado, disembarking from military choppers donning jungle fatigue, to issue, for the umpteenth time, a final warning to bandits.
Several months later, and the menace persists. Indeed, so bad is the situation today that Kindiki has led the government to declare banditry a national emergency and ordered residents of several afflicted areas in four counties to vacate and pave the way for an operation to flush out the culprits.
Equally, the CS has ordered that anyone suspected of assisting, financing, or planning banditry attacks, including political leaders, be questioned and provide statements to the police.
What would the Kenyan police—who are not trained or equipped for foreign peacekeeping—offer the people of Haiti who are suffering under more menacing thugs?
Heavily armed gangs have even tried to seize control of Haiti’s main international airport, raising questions about the feasibility of safe landing for any intervention forces.
Haiti, ranked the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, had requested international assistance more than a year ago to stem the rising insecurity tide.
Gang-related violence has spiked in the country of about 11 million since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise more than two years ago. Thanks to the anarchy, an estimated, 200,000 people, half of them children, have been uprooted from their homes, according to the UN.
Though Kenya’s intervention was approved by the UN, the High Court in Nairobi stopped it on grounds of irregularity and unconstitutionality.
Kenya’s parliaments passed a motion last November allowing the deployment of 1,000 officers to lead a multinational force in Haiti. But Judge Chacha Mwita said Kenya’s National Security Council, which is led by the president, does not have the authority to deploy regular police outside the country.
It noteworthy, however, that Kenya’s current parliament, just like its predecessor, remains largely a captive of the Executive. Having manipulated its majority status in the House, the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition has passed every bill favoured by the president, even against overwhelming opposition from the electorate.
For the Kenyan legislators, sacrificing the safety of their compatriots at the altar of President Ruto’s whims, may be an easy choice to make.
