Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has addressed security concerns regarding the deployment of 1000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti.
Speaking on Citizen TV’s Weekend Show on Saturday, Mudavadi, who also serves as the Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary, clarified that the mission would be guided by an existing United Nations security framework designed to address security concerns in the deployment.
Contrary to worries about the readiness of Kenyan forces to handle the challenges in the gang-ravaged Caribbean nation, CS Mudavadi assured that the United Nations Security Council had established a comprehensive framework with guidelines for the troops to follow.
He emphasized that the mission primarily involves security support and may not entail direct encounters with gangs.
“They will have their operating rules and guidelines issued in accordance with deployment regulations of the UN and within the framework of the UN parameter.
How they will engage or behave, they are not going ion a vacuum they will be guided by principles and standards which they must adhere to,” he stated.
“It is not a mission where the deployed people are going on straight-on combat, it is a security support mission. There could be encounters that may arise along the way but the responses must be in accordance with the guidelines provided within the deployment framework and those of the UN.”
citing the recent deployments across the globe including Namibia, Kosovo, Sierra Leon and the DRC Congo.
“The deployment of Kenya police to Haiti will be strategic. There are trained people, and there have been several missions of Kenya’s security team working with other countries. We had Namibia, Sierra Leon, Kosovo, DRC and Somalia,” he said.
“Each particular mission is managed in accordance with the challenges at hand but is guided by the UN framework.”
The CS at the same also disclosed that the same framework had consisted of good health provision guidelines for the troops owing to the current state of healthcare in the war-tone nation.
“It is a security support mission and the framework under which they will work is negotiated. There is a framework agreed upon and a framework that is going to be followed to make sure deployment is in accordance with expectations of Haitian people and the UN,” he explained.
“They are going through these details very carefully in terms of what would be the situation in an emergency situation and how would they be handled. We’re not jumping into the deep end without knowing how to swim. These are people who are trained in matters of security.”
