By Adongo Ogony (At The White House) May 24, 2024
Biden thanks Kenya’s Ruto for sending police to Haiti, defends keeping U.S. forces from the mission
US President Joe Biden and Kenya’s President William Ruto speak during a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington on May 23, 2024
The whole world knows that one of the main reasons President Joe Biden invited the Kenyan president William Ruto to the USA is because Kenya is right now in the process of sending 1,000 Kenyan police to Haiti to fight the gangsters and the total chaos in Haiti. Why is the US president working so hard to send Kenyans there? Joe Biden explained that in the media conference.
President Joe Biden on Thursday expressed deep appreciation to Kenyan President William Ruto for the coming deployment of Kenyan police forces to help quell gang violence in Haiti and he defended his decision to withhold American forces from the mission in the beleaguered Caribbean nation.
The United States has agreed to contribute $300 million to a multinational force that will include 1,000 Kenyan police officers, but Biden argued that an American troop presence in Haiti would raise “all kinds of questions that can easily be misrepresented.”
“Haiti is in an area of the Caribbean that is a very volatile,” Biden said at a joint news conference with Ruto. “There’s a lot going on in this hemisphere. So we’re in a situation where we want to do all we can without us looking like America once again is stepping over and deciding this is what must be done.”
Ruto is facing legal challenges in Nairobi over the decision to commit Kenyan forces to a conflict thousands of miles from home when his own country has no shortage of economic and security challenges. He said that Kenya, as a democracy, has a duty to help.
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.
The Biden administration has praised Kenya for stepping up in Haiti when so few other countries have agreed to do so.
From what Joe Biden said the US cannot and will not send any troops to Haiti talking about America not “wanting to look like America once again is stepping over and deciding this is what must be done.”
That is the biggest lie I have ever heard from Joe Biden who is a very nice person as the US president. The real reason Joe Biden and the US are not sending troops to Haiti at this time is because the place is too deadly right now and Americans will get their troops killed their putting Joe in a mess politically.
Plus the US has had troops in Haiti forever including controlling Haiti for 50 years after Haiti gained its independence from France in 1804. Haiti is the first black free state in the West rising from slavery and has been an independent country for 220 years from 1804 to 2024 and most of that time the USA has controlled and ruined Haiti. In terms of these fake peace keeping activities the US is always there and end up running away in the last 20 years. They don’t want to go there anymore because they know the consequences.
Joe Biden also stated that no other country wants to go and fight these gangsters right now so somehow the US decided Kenya should do it and they were very lucky to get President William Ruto who is more than eager to go do the dirty work in Haiti and fight those crazy gangsters who stopped the Haiti Prime minister from coming back to Haiti after a trip to Kenya and have now blocked out the entire airport.
No country wants to get involved with that madness. They needed some president with serious personal ego, reckless enough and thirsty for money to go there and face that nightmare. They got William Ruto to be their man for that job.
A Canadian soldier carries supplies as troops arrive at a temporary medical centre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in January 2010.
In terms of western countries who refuse to send any troops to Haiti to help, Canada is one of the worst ones. The province of Montreal in Canada is French speaking and there literally more than 100,000 Haitian refugees there over the years and most of them are dual citizens of Canada and Haiti. There are also many of those who actually went back to live in Haiti. So with the terrible situation in Haiti they are asking Canada to come like they have done before. This time Canada is taking no part in any peace keeping effort because of fear of the dangers involved this time around.
The first Black Governor General of Canada was Haitian born Michaelle Jean in 2005 and the country loved her so much and when we see Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying they are not going to Haiti to help this time you know the fear is huge.
A social activist, Jean mixed freely in the diverse world of Montreal’s ethnic communities, honing a perfect command of French and English in the process.
The one thing which is disturbing is that Joe Biden is announcing all the money they are giving Ruto for the Haiti operation ($ 300 million) and the bad thing about that is the US is treating Kenyans as paid mercenaries and basically saying we have paid you and if it doesn’t work that is your problem.
In any event how much of all this money is going to the police officers being sent to Haiti and to the facilities they need to be safe. Kenyans will find that out very soon because the Kenyan Haiti mission is on as we speak. Kenyans there have to be safe by any means necessary.
US Announces Ksh.930M Partnership To Modernize Kenya’s National Police Service
Ready: Kenya Police To Start Arriving In Haiti This Month, US Military Readies Their Camps
Haiti is no exception! Ruto defends troops deployment
President William Ruto standing side by side with Joe Biden had his own side of the Kenyan mission when asked by the media to explain what the plan is in Haiti.
According to media reports from the White House, President William Ruto on Wednesday defended government’s move to deploy police officers to gang-ravaged Haiti.
While responding to questions during a Q and A session at the White House, Ruto said it is Kenya’s responsibility to help countries in distress.
The President added that Kenya has been at the forefront in helping countries in Africa regain peace and stability and Haiti would not be an exception.
“I made a commitment to Kenyans to sort out insecurity in the North Rift, I have followed that with action. As we speak there are 3,000 military officers in the North Rift and 2,000 police officers in the North Rift,” the President said.
“We have renovated the first 15 schools and reopened 20 schools that were closed which is ongoing. We have made tremendous progress to create security at home.”
He explained that while sending the police to Haiti, the government is making progress in solving the banditry menace in the North Rift.
“Even as we were deploying troops and police officers in our own country in North Rift to sort out the banditry problem, we still deployed 1000 troops to DRC Congo because that is our neighbourhood,” Ruto said.
The President added that Kenya has deployed 5,000 troops in Somalia on a peacekeeping mission.
Kenyan military are seen near Liboi at the border with Somalia in Kenya
“This deployment is equally our responsibility and Haiti should not be an exception. That is why deploying 1,000 security men to Haiti speaks to the same belief and commitment to peace and security.
On Tuesday, the first 100 Kenyan police officers arrived as peacekeepers in Haiti.
Another 900 are due to follow as Kenya takes up leadership of the multiple foreign forces helping to restore law and order in Haiti.
Deputy Inspector General of Administration Police Noor Gabow is leading the delegation that visited Port au Prince last year for planning and reconnaissance.
Gabow will serve as the Force Commander of the Multinational Security Support Mission and has already arrived in the gang violence-hit Caribbean country.
Kenyan troops will be used to guard the airport and other key installations.
The airport, along with the neighbouring Guy Malary domestic airport, had been shut to commercial and regular flights since armed gangs launched attacks on February 29 against state institutions.
In all fairness, President Ruto tried his best to defend the indefensible when the guy paying for all that was next to him.
The idea that sending Kenyan police to Haiti is the same as sending them to Rift Valley in Kenya to fight bandits just makes no sense. In any part of Kenya Ruto will be sending his police officers to deal with those bandits there is one big difference with Haiti.
Those bandits in Rift Valley will run away and hide from Kenya police and military troops. In Haiti the gangs will not run away and in fact they will shoot back with automatic weapons and sometime they are going to shoot and kill the Kenya police even before those police troops fire their weapons. You can’t compare those two situations.
Why is Haiti so chaotic? Leaders used street gangs to gain power. Then the gangs got stronger
A demonstrator holds up a Haitian flag during a protest against acting prime minister Ariel Henry’s government and the country’s growing insecurity in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, on 1 March 2024.
As for sending Kenyan soldiers to DRC to help cool things down that was Kenya’s decision and nobody paid them to do it. If it worked great and if it was not working Kenya just walks out.
The other bad example is Kenya sending 5,000 troops to Somalia which they did at a time when every Somali village had its own government and soldiers and in fact in Mogadishu alone there were ten or so governments and armies. It was a nightmare.
The reality in Somalia where Kenyans faced very bad gangsters the reality is that when things got bad and the Kenyan troops were in danger of being killed they could retreat and cross the border back to Kenya and they were safe. In Haiti there will be no border to cross back to Kenya when the Kenya troops are facing annihilation. They will need air defense system which is what the Americans had there and even that does not help much on the ground.
In short with this Haiti mission Kenya and their troops are entering a theatre of war they have never seen before and it could be brutal for our Kenyan troops there and for the country. We will support the troops as our fellow citizens and hope they are safe but it is the job of the government to at least know what they are doing. At this point it does not look like that is the case.
And this is the present Haiti interim government after the acting PM was blocked by gangsters from coming back to Haiti.
Transitional Council members pose for a group photo after a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, April 30, 2024.
This new “government” in Haiti should at least have sent their acting PM to Washington to meet their new prince for peace and figure out what to do next but I suspect they feared anybody who goes there to meet William Ruto and Joe Biden would never make it back because the gangsters would block the airport for them. That is bad stuff whichever way you look at it.
1000 Kenyan Police officers will arrive in HAITI in the next 3 weeks – RUTO tells the BBC
Saturday, May 25, 2024 – President William Ruto has said his government is ready to deploy 1000 police officers to Haiti to help the Caribbean country battle with gangs that have taken over key government installations.
In an interview with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Friday, Ruto said officers were expected to start arriving before the end of May but an advance team on the ground said some logistics were not ready hence the extension by two more weeks.
The millions that follow a State visit by President Ruto will focus on staff and training development and are culmination of 60 years of official U.S.-Kenya partnership celebrations.
The US government announced a $7 million (approximately Ksh.930 million) partnership on Thursday to advance and strengthen the modernization and professionalisation of Kenya’s National Police Service.
The millions that follow a State visit by President Ruto will focus on staff and training development and are culmination of 60 years of official U.S.-Kenya partnership celebrations.
At the same time, the US government has pledged $4.9 million (approximately Ksh.650 million) to help Kenya combat transnational organised crime.
The new funding for Kenya and other East African countries is expected to improve collaboration and coordination in combating criminal networks and holding criminals responsible.
“Funding also supports capacity building and reform efforts within the Kenyan police and justice sectors,” the White House said in a fact sheet to Newsrooms on Thursday.
“Recognizing the regional role Kenya plays in combating transnational organized crime, the United States intends to provide $4.9 million in new funding for Kenya and other East African countries to improve cooperation and coordination in combating criminal networks and holding criminals accountable.”
Other security sectors that will benefit from President Ruto’s visit to Washington include the Defence Ministry, which is set to receive a 16-helicopter and 150-armoured vehicle fleet.
According to a White House statement released on Thursday, the 16 helicopters include eight Hueys to support regional peace and security and eight MD-500s to increase Kenya’s participation in peacekeeping missions.
According to the White House, the aircraft are scheduled to arrive in Nairobi between late 2024 and 2025.
As part of deepening a legacy of deepening a legacy of military training and capacity building between the two countries, in the summer of 2024, for the first time, the Kenya Defence Forces will have candidates starting courses at the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
This, according to the White House, will go a long way in building on a long tradition of the majority of Kenyan general officers benefitting from U.S. International Military Education Training courses.
“The U.S. military currently has seven advisors in Kenya supporting Kenyan aviators and for the first time, the United States is providing a Strategic Logistics Advisor to Kenya’s Ministry of Defense,” said the White House.
This is the last US mission that failed in Haiti and they had more weapons than the Haitian army and police combined. Now they want to throw Kenya in there. With What?
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