Bahamas thanks Kenya for Haiti intervention

Prime cabinet secretary Musalia Mudavadi has said that Kenya will send the second batch of 300 police officers to Haiti to help fight gangs controlling much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and nearby areas.
 
Mudavadi said that Kenya will have over 1000 police officers in the volatile Haitian nation after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) approved the extension of one more year to tame the gangs that had caused mayhem, increased sexual violence, and displaced about 700,000 people from their homes.
 
 Mudavadi said that the cohorts of 300 officers will leave before the end of the year and the remaining batch will fly out of the country in early 2025, giving room for the creation of a full UN mission in 2025.
The Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), was authorised by the UN Security Council in October 2023, and Kenya deployed less than a quarter of its planned 1,900 more troops.
 
Speaking when he held talks with the Bahamas Prime Minister Phillip Edwards, on the sidelines of the 27th Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, the Prime Cabinet secretary said that the Kenya mission in Haiti had managed to stabilize the situation in the airport, the national hospital and a number of the key installations and major roads across the city of Port au Prince.
 
“We had a good start with the first batch in Haiti and we are now ready to deploy another 600 officers in two cohorts by the end of the year and early next year so that they can bring stability to the Caribbean country,” said Mudavadi.
 
The PCS said there were over 400 officers in Haiti including 382 from Kenya, 24 from Jamaica, and 2 from Belize, and that the forces on the ground were working closely with the Haitian police to protect the people and restore security.
 
Mudavadi said when the Haitian Prime Minister Dr. Gary Connel visited the country this month he said he was happy with the progress of the security containment and urged Kenya to send in more troops.
“We are now urging those who had pledged to support and the United Nations to give their monetary and logistical assistance to ensure that the intervention is impactful and leads to the eventual restoration of normalcy in Haiti,” said Mudavadi.
 
He said Kenya courageously went into Haiti without any support from the world and thanked President William Ruto for agreeing to stand with the brothers and sisters in the Caribbean country.
 
He urged the Bahamas PM to make public every support he was making in Haiti as a morale booster to the rest of the other countries that were looking to support the country,” said Mudavadi.
The PCS encouraged the Bahamas to send an enjoy to Kenya.
 
PM Edwards thanked Kenya for its assistance in the insecurity situation in Haiti last year and noted that there were also 150 to help in the country.
 
“I flagged off a group of high-level persons to the ground to do reconnaissance, we will be sending another group of 144 officers before the end of the year to help in Haiti.
Mr Edward said despite an international embargo, arms and ammunition ban, there was continued smuggling into the country allowing the gangs to extend their control to new territories.
 
“I am proud of Kenya for moving into Haiti with courage and resolve that is now bearing fruits. As our neighbour, the insecurity in Haiti had become a burden in the Bahamas given that over 30,000 illegal immigrants because of the gangs engineered conflict,” said Mr. Edwards.
 
He noted that together with the Haitians using the Bahamas as their entry point to the United States, the many who did not succeed were left and moved to live in his country.
Mr. Edward in his response asked his Foreign Affairs minister to look at the logistics of opening an embassy in Nairobi as an entry point into Africa.