An American diplomat has made controversial claims about Kenyan President William Ruto’s move to head the UN-backed mission to restore peace in Haiti.
In an interview with CNN, Daniel Lewis Foote, who was the US special envoy to Haiti from July to September, said that the Kenyan president was after the money the UN is expected to inject into the mission.
Foote claimed that the Haiti mission was no walk in the park and that the well-organised gangs that overthrew the government would fight the Kenyan police to the death.
“You see the reticence on the part of the Kenyan public to send these guys and that makes me nervous. I believe that this is more of a cash grab by President Ruto, whose country is going to receive a lot of money in doing this,” Mr Foote said.
In an interview with CNN, Daniel Lewis Foote, who was the US special envoy to Haiti from July to September, said that the Kenyan president was after the money the UN is expected to inject into the mission.
President Joe Biden’s administration had promised to inject Ksh13 billion ($100 million) to support the multinational force.
Kenya had promised to send 1,000 troops to the Caribbean nation in a deal struck between the Kenyan president and former Haitian prime minister Ariel Henry, who recently resigned to pave the way for the Transitional Council.
However, Mr Ariel resigned barely a week after signing an agreement in Nairobi, which stopped the deployment for a while.
After signing the deal, Mr Ariel was forced to land in Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan as fighting intensified.
While the Haiti mission has received support from Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad, and Kenya, Mr Foote believes that there is a need to increase the number of troops that should be deployed if the mission has to be successful.
“A thousand isn’t going to cut it and while they have commitments for double or triple that, that’s still not going to cut it. Every time there has been a military intervention in Haiti in the past 20 years, it’s had a minimum of 20,000 troops or police going in there,” Foote stated.
While Mr Foote suggests that Kenya’s motivation was based on billions that the UN Security Council will pump into the mission, the President has maintained that the country is going to Haiti because Haitians need help from Kenya.
“From Kenya, we are ready for this deployment, and I request all the other partners across the globe to step up so that we can respond in good time,” Ruto said when he signed the deal with Mr Ariel.
The latest development from the Caribbean state is that one of the gang leaders known as Ernst Julme, known as Ti Greg, was killed by the police in Thursday’s operation in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The death of Julme a member of gang leader Jimmy, better known as Barbeque, comes after the death of another gang leader, bringing hope to the people who have been cut off from essential services such as electricity, water, and access to health.
The situation in Haiti deteriorated in July 2021 following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.
