.webp "Kenya Court stops Police from being Deployed") |
| Kenya Police Force |
High Court judge Chacha Mwita ruled on Friday that President William Ruto and his National Security Council do not have the authority to send police officers to Haiti or any other country under Kenyan law.
He added that the long-delayed deployment under a deal financed by the United States “contravenes the constitution and the law and is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and invalid.”
"An order is hereby issued prohibiting deployment of police forces to Haiti or any other country,” he said.
Isaac Mwaura, a spokesperson for the Kenyan government said Friday that the decision would be contested legally.
“While the government respects the rule of law, we have however made the decision to challenge the high court’s verdict forthwith,” he said in a statement.
The ruling comes as the Haitian government calls for the urgent deployment of a multinational force to help its overwhelmed police battle rampant violence.
In October, the US State Department pledged $100 million to support a multinational force in Haiti after the UN Security Council voted to approve it to quell gang violence in the island nation. Kenya volunteered to lead it and got necessary approvals from its cabinet and parliament.
But Kenyan politician Ekuru Aukot led a legal challenge to the planned in deployment in court, terming it unconstitutional. The high court ruling agreed with him.
It is not immediately clear whether the Kenyan government would appeal the ruling or the extent to which the domestic legal battle could complicate the deployment of the multinational force to Haiti, which it spearheads alongside Haiti’s neighbors – Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, and Jamaica.
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 horror experienced in war zones.
“The Haitian people cannot take any more. I hope this time is the last time I will speak before the deployment of a multinational force to support our security forces,” Jean Victor Geneus told the council.
