The gangs in Haiti are reported to be growing stronger ahead of Kenya’s police deployment.
Haitian gangs control the country’s infrastructure, from police stations and seaports.
The gangs have chased hundreds of thousands of people from the capital and have links to the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s president.
According to the New York Times, the influence and capability of many Haitian gangs are evolving.
And this is making them ever more dangerous to the Kenyan-led multinational police force.
The gangs are involved in kidnappings and extortion.
“The gangs had been making their money from kidnappings and extortion and payouts from politicians during elections and the business elites in between,”
“But the gangs are now much more autonomous and don’t need the old guard’s financial support,” he added. “They have created a Frankenstein that is beyond anyone’s control,” said William O’Neill, the United Nations-appointed human rights expert for Haiti.
Even worse for Kenyan police officers is the report that Haitian gangs are working together.
Some of the gangs formed an alliance called Vivre Ensemble, or Living Together.
In March 2024, Ruto pledged to send 1000 police officers to Haiti to lead the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti meant to stabilise the country.
“From Kenya, we are ready for this deployment, and I request all the other partners across the globe to step up so that we can respond in good time,” said Ruto.
The Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti is authorised by the United Nations Security Council.
This was signed on October 2, 2023, under Resolution 2699.
This followed widespread gang violence that rendered much of the country lawless and ungovernable.
In 2021, assassins killed Haiti’s former President Jovenel Moise at his residence in the capital Port-au-Prince highlighting the level of insecurity in the Caribbean nation.
