There was both joy and sorrow at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport when the second team of Kenya police left Nairobi for Haiti to help fight gangs that had almost overrun the Caribbean nation.
The team of 200 well-trained officers left Nairobi on Monday July 15 night aboard a UN chartered flight and was scheduled to arrive in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday 10 am Kenyan time.
Outgoing Deputy Inspector General of Administration Police who was the coordinator of the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti Noor Gabow and the acting DIG James Kamau were present to see off the team.
The team was not happy because the man they have known as their father-Gabow- will no longer be their coordinator.
Read: Kenyan police arrival in Haiti marks new era for security, prime minister tells UN
He however told them it is the nature of their work and asked the team to focus and deliver the mandate.
“Be disciplined and support the new DIG. We are happy where we have reached and I am sure we will deliver the mandate,” he said.
The team hugged him as they boarded the plane and took off with sorrow.
On the other hand, they were happy to join their colleagues who are already in Haiti.
“We hope for the best for now. We will deliver,” shouted one officer.
MSS is an international police force approved by the United Nations Security Council on 2 October 2023 to assist the government of Haiti in restoring law and order amid worsening civil strife and gang violence since 2018.
The team will join an advance one that had arrived in Haiti on June 25 and embarked on recce missions.
And after weeks of planning and learning the ground, the team helped the Haitian police recapture a national hospital that had been occupied by gangs there.
The attacks from criminal groups have for instance pushed Haiti’s health system to the brink of collapse and the escalating violence has led to a surge in patients with serious illnesses and a shortage of resources to treat them.
Besides the hospital, gunmen have seized police stations, attacked the main international airport (which was closed for nearly three months), and stormed Haiti’s two largest prisons.
According to a report from the U.N. migration agency, the violence in Haiti has displaced nearly 580,000 people since March.
But since the arrival of Kenyan police, the police had also managed to recapture the Gressier Police Station and security officers had taken control of several areas.
The team will man hospitals, ports, airport, the presidential palace and highways.
Apart from Kenya, other countries that have pledged to send officers to Haiti include Benin, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Algeria, Canada and France.
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