Kenyan police advance team leaves Haiti as international mission is delayed

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — An advance team of Kenyan police officials who were assessing preparedness before a multinational force is deployed to quell violence in Haiti is heading back home after the planned deployment was delayed over logistical issues.

The team is due to arrive back from Haiti on Monday after recommending a deployment delay that was later announced by the president.

A senior Kenyan official who declined to be named as they are not the official spokesperson said the bases are still under construction and crucial resources including vehicles are needed before deployment of the first 200 police officers from Kenya can take place.

The deployment was due to start this week, but President William Ruto said it would be delayed for three weeks.

The base where the police will operate from is about 70% done and there is need for secure stores for the armory, according to the senior official, who was in the advance team.

The officials arrived in Haiti on Tuesday, met the Haitian police on Thursday and the transitional presidential council on Friday.

U.S President Joe Biden on Thursday expressed deep appreciation to Ruto, who was on a state visit, for the deployment to help quell gang violence in Haiti.

The United States has agreed to contribute $300 million to a multinational force that will include 1,000 Kenyan police officers and others drawn from Jamaica, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda and other countries.

Haiti has endured poverty, political instability and natural disasters for decades. International intervention in Haiti has a complicated history. A U.N.-approved stabilization mission to Haiti that started in June 2004 was marred by a sexual abuse scandal and the introduction of cholera, which killed nearly 10,000 people. The mission ended in October 2017.