Kenya pauses Haiti mission following doubts

STORY: Kenya’s government did an about-face on Tuesday, announcing it was pausing a long-delayed deployment of Kenyan police officers to tackle spiraling violence in Haiti.

Only 11 days ago, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and Kenyan President William Ruto signed an agreement that Ruto said would fast-track the deployment of the officers to the Caribbean nation.

The jarring turn of events leaves the future of the U.N.-backed, multinational mission for Haiti in serious doubt.

Kenya's government first pledged 1,000 officers to lead the security mission last July.

But the initiative had been tied up in court challenges ever since.

On March 1, Henry signed an agreement with Kenya's government.

The agreement was intended to address concerns raised by a Kenyan judge who had deemed an existing plan unlawful.

But Henry was then unable to return to Haiti because of escalating violence.

He has now announced that he would be resigning as soon as a transitional council and temporary leader are chosen.

But it was not clear when that might happen, with a tenuous security situation in the capital Port-au-Prince.

A senior Kenyan diplomatic official told Reuters on Tuesday that the deployment was on pause pending "a clear indication" that a new interim government was in place.

U.S. officials said on Tuesday that members of the transition council should be appointed within 48 hours, following talks this week in Jamaica between Caribbean leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

U.S. officials also said that it was confident the deployment of security forces would still go ahead once Haiti's new leaders were named through a transitional process.

According to the United Nations, some 360,000 people are internally displaced and 1,200 have been killed since the start of the year.

The Kenyan deployment faced major obstacles well before Henry resigned, including criticism from opposition politicians who characterized the mission as too dangerous and not in Kenya’s national interests.

Though Kenyan officials have said that the highly-trained paramilitary officers were well prepared for the challenges.

Kenya had also asked to be paid the costs of the deployment upfront.

That's contrary to U.N. rules that require the funds it administers to be used only to reimburse costs already incurred, according to a diplomat in Nairobi and U.N. officials.

They said that Kenya would therefore need to find a country willing to pay it directly.

The United States has pledged a total of $300 million to the mission.

$100 million of that total was announced on Monday (March 11) with a senior U.S. official saying it would be used for logistics and equipment and not pass into a dedicated U.N. fund for the mission.

Should transitional leadership be chosen in Haiti, there could also be further legal obstructions to Kenya’s deployment.

The opposition lawmaker who spearheaded the initial lawsuit has vowed to launch a new challenge.

Many Haitian communities and observers are also wary of international interventions after previous U.N. missions left behind a devastating cholera epidemic and sex abuse scandals, for which reparations were never made.