Kenya court ruling forbids planned Haiti police deployment

The Kenyan government says it intends to challenge a court ruling against its decision to deploy a contingent of police officers to Haiti at the head of a UN-backed law-and-order mission to the Caribbean nation.

Nairobi's HIgh Court reached the ruling earlier on Friday.

The international community and the Haitian government had long been seeking a multinational force to help combat rising gang violence which saw almost 5,000 people murdered last year alone.

Many countries had been wary of supporting Prime Minister Ariel Henry's unelected administration — governing in the aftermath of the former president's assassination — and intervening in a nation where previous missions had been dogged by human rights abuses.

But months of fruitless appeals, Kenya stepped forward last July, saying it was doing so in "solidarity with a brother nation."

The UN Security Council had approved the mission in October, but the plans are now on hold after Justice Enock Chacha Mwita ruled that Kenya's National Security Council, which is led by the president, does not have the authority to deploy regular police outside the country.

Kenya: Haiti police deployment 'unconstitutional, illegal and invalid'

"Any decision by any state organ or state officer to deploy police officers to Haiti ... contravenes the constitution and the law and is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and invalid," he said, handing down the ruling at Nairobi High Court.

Via a spokesman, the Kenyan government responded that, while it "respects the rule of law," it had "made the decision to challenge the high court's verdict forthwith." It added: "The government reiterates its commitment in honoring its international obligations."

Ekuru Aukot, the opposition politician who challenged the deployment, said he was prepared for a long fight.

"We will still be waiting for them at the court of appeal, and we will go all the way to the Supreme Court," he told the French AFP news agency. "They should be thanking me for saving the government this embarrassment."

President Ruto defends 'mission for humanity'

Kenya had been prepared to send up to 1,000 police and security personnel across the Atlantic, the first 300 of whom had been expected to arrive in the coming days. Chad, Senegal, Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas and Antigua & Barbuda have also pledged officers for the coalition, bringing the total number of personnel to around 3,000.

President William Ruto had described the Kenyan undertaking as a "mission for humanity" and one in keeping with its record of contributing to peacekeeping missions abroad.

On Thursday, Haiti's foreign minister pleaded for the deployment to be speeded up, telling the UN Security Council that gang violence in the country was as barbaric as the horrors experienced in war zones.

"The Haitian people cannot take any more," Jean Victor Geneus told the council. "I hope this time is the last time I will speak before the deployment of a multinational force to support our security forces."

mf/msh (AFP, Reuters)