Haitians urged to be calm after Kenya court rules against deployment of troops
HAITI HAS urged its citizens “to remain calm and to support our security forces” as it responded to the ruling of the Kenya High Court last Friday against sending troops to the French-speaking CARICOM country.
“Faced with threats fr om armed gangs who continue to sow panic, now is not the time for adventurism, nor for a resumption of the manoeuvres which in the past contributed to the worsening of the situation in t he country,” the Ariel Henry government said in a statement late Sunday, adding it is “following developments in Kenya and expects a swift and positive outcome”.
The government of Kenya said it intends to exhaust all legal remedies at its disposal to challenge the verdict of the High Court of Justice prohibiting the deployment of 1,000 security agents to Haiti.
The deployment was part of the multinational security support mission to restore peace and security in Haiti in its fight against gangs and for the restoration of public order.
“Although the government respects the rule of l aw, we have nevertheless decided to immediately challenge the High Court verdict,” said Isaac Mwaura, the spokesperson for the government.
On Friday, Justice Chacha Mwita declared that the National Security Council did not have the mandate to deploy police officers in another country.
In October last year, Kenya’s National Security Council had requested parliament’s approval for the deployment of Kenyan police officers as part of the UN-backed security mission. The National Assembly then approved this deployment.
In its ruling, the High Court said that parliamentary approval was only required for military, and not police deployments.
But it said, for officers to be deployed, there needed to be a reciprocal arrangement with the host government, which the petitioners had argued, with no contest from the government, was not currently in place.
The 15-member regional integration movement, CARICOM, has so far not issued any official statement regarding the ruling by the Kenya High Court, but in its statement, Haiti urged its citizens “not to allow themselves to be intimidated by disinformation campaigns and threats of violence”.
It added that it would “like to thank the many countries that have come forward to offer various types of aid to restore order and security as soon as possible”.