The High Court has declared the planned deployment of Kenyan police officers to Haiti as illegal, saying the National Security Council has no mandate to deploy police officers to another country.

The National Security Council, in October last year, petitioned Parliament to approve the deployment of Kenyan police officers on a UN-backed security mission to war-torn Haiti.

The National Assembly has since approved the deployment.

Haiti has been grappling with a surge in violence since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 at his private residence in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

This has triggered calls for a security intervention to complement the efforts of the understaffed and under-resourced Haiti national police force.

Did you read this?

  1. Fake!: NPS Denies Reports Of Kenyan Police Killed In Haiti
  2. Kenyan Security Force Arrives In Gang-Ridden Haiti
  3. First 400 Kenyan Police Officers Leave For Haiti To Fight Gangs

Kenya had okayed the deployment of the police units to lead the peace efforts in the violence-hit Caribbean nation. Still, the move was blocked after Thirdway Alliance Party leader Ekuru Aukot filed a case challenging it on October 9.

Aukot claimed in his petition that the action was unconstitutional.

On October 24, the court further prolonged the injunctions prohibiting Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki from assigning Kenyan police to the UN-backed operation in a new manner.

On November 16, 2023, the National Assembly approved the planned deployment to Haiti.

The government is counting on the Senate's approval, as it is widely anticipated that senators will support a report from the Joint Security and National Administration Committee of Parliament.

The joint team accepted the deployment, but Peter Kaluma, the MP for Homa Bay Town, disapproved, calling it "unconstitutional and unlawful."

Kaluma argued that the National Police Service (NPS) can only perform its function within Kenyan territory and is only a force for deployment within the country.

Further, he opposed the deployment, arguing that the NPS is an independent institution incapable of deployment under the National Security Council's (NSAC) instruction.

At least ten other countries have signaled readiness to deploy personnel to the Kenya-led Mission, which received approval from the UN Security Council in October 2023.