Ruto Open to Converting Haiti Mission to UN Peacekeeping Operation 

President William Ruto, on a visit to Haiti, said on Saturday, September 21, that he was open to Kenya’s anti-gang mission in the country being converted to a full U.N. peacekeeping operation.

Ruto visited Haiti to assess the progress of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, where Kenya is playing a leading role in curbing rampant gang violence that has ushered years of political chaos and mass displacement.

The mandate of the MSS mission – first approved by the United Nations Security Council for 12 months – is set to expire at the start of October.

UNSC has begun considering a draft resolution to extend the MSS mandate and ask the U.N. to plan for it to become a formal peacekeeping mission.

“On the suggestion to transit this into a fully U.N. Peacekeeping mission, we have absolutely no problem with it, if that is the direction the U.N. security council wants to take,” Ruto said on Saturday in Port-au-Prince.

The United States and Ecuador circulated a draft text that would renew the MSS mandate for another 12 months and ask the U.N. to begin planning to transition the MSS mission to a U.N. peacekeeping operation.

The 15-member council is due to vote on Sept. 30 on the mandate renewal.

After the Security Council approved the MSS mission, Kenya sent about 400 police officers to Port-au-Prince in June and July from an expected total of 1,000. 

A handful of other countries have together pledged at least 1,900 more troops.

However, the efficacy of the MSS mission has been criticized amid delays in deployments of manpower and vital equipment needed to fight powerful gangs.

On Friday, the United Nations’ expert on human rights in Haiti said that the situation has worsened, with now about 700,000 people internally displaced.

The switch is both an acknowledgment of the administration’s struggle to attract voluntary contributions for the mission, which the administration says roughly costs $200 million every six months to operate, and of its failure to quickly restore order in Haiti despite public pronouncements that there has been progress since the Kenyans’ arrival.

Kenyan police are in Haiti to help the Caribbean nation stabilize from gangs.

A traditional U.N. peacekeeping operation would end the mission’s problems with funding, because it would be paid for through member nations’ traditionally assessed contributions.

It would also provide more equipment like helicopters, which the current Kenya-led mission lacks, and possibly a hospital capable of performing surgeries.