Kenya signs deal with Haiti to send 1,000 police officers to the Caribbean

The Kenyan government said Friday it has signed an agreement with Haiti to deploy a multinational force in the gang-ridden Caribbean country. In doing so, she is pursuing a plan that has drawn criticism from rights groups and been blocked by a court in the East African country.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry of Haiti recently arrived in Kenya to finalize plans to deploy 1,000 Kenyan police officers to his country.

The plan had been declared unconstitutional in January by Kenya’s Supreme Court, which said it could only go ahead if there was a “mutual agreement” between the two nations.

On Friday, Kenya’s President William Ruto said the two governments had signed the agreement to enable the deployment. He did not provide a timeline of when the police officers would be deployed to Haiti, but said in a statement that he and Mr. Henry had “discussed next steps to accelerate the deployment.”

“We believe this is a historic obligation because peace in Haiti is good for the world as a whole,” Ruto said in a statement.

The force, which is backed by the United Nations and funded by the United States, has been widely criticized by Kenyan opponents and activists, who call it unconstitutional. Many of them pointed to the human rights abuses committed by the Kenyan police over the years and their dismal record in the fight against terrorists and other criminals.

It was not immediately clear whether Kenyan opponents of the plan would challenge the new agreement or the possible deployment of troops. Some Kenyan activists have said that even if Kenya were to sign an agreement with Haiti, Mr Henry would not have the legal right to sign the document because he is not an elected leader.

Mr Henry became Haiti’s leader after its president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated three years ago, plunging the country into extraordinary levels of violence and chaos.

Gangs control many parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and police in Haiti have failed to quell the unrest, prompting Mr Henry to call for international help.

But he himself has been criticized for his handling of the unrest, and many Haitians are demanding that he call elections.

In Kenya, the government has appealed the Supreme Court’s decision blocking the deployment. But a State Department official also told The New York Times last month that as long as they had a “mutual agreement” with Haiti, the government does not want to wait for the court’s decision before the armed forces are deployed.