Kenya High Court to hold hearing on its police in Haiti

Kenya’s High Court will hold a hearing today on sending its national police force to Haiti.

Kenya agreed to lead a UN-sponsored mission to help assist Haitian law enforcement fight against increasing gang violence within the country. Through this initiative, Nairobi would send up to a thousand personnel. However, last week, several Kenyan officials skeptical about the project declared that they would not be sending their police to Haiti unless the UN committed to the mission by providing adequate funding and setting training programs for Kenyan policemen. Today, the high court will hold a hearing on a case brought forward by an opposition politician to decide whether to follow through with the mission guidelines or not.

Despite preparations, expect the high court to cancel the decision during the short-to-medium-term. While Nairobi is discontent with the lack of support from other participants of the mission, the main reason is because of the strong civilian opposition to Kenya’s involvement in the project due to the heavy economic burden and the potential risks that could come along. It is also because of a widespread belief that Nairobi’s initiative will have little to no effect on the overall security issues surfacing in Haiti.