US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with Kenyan President William Ruto on the ongoing political and security crisis in Haiti, the US Department of State said on Saturday.
A press release by Matthew Miller, Spokesperson for the US Department of State, said they “underscored unwavering commitment” to the deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission to support the Haitian National Police in creating the security conditions necessary to conduct free and fair elections.
In October last year, the UN Security Council approved the deployment of a Kenyan-led foreign armed force to Haiti to help bring under control violence in which gangs control most of the capital and nearly 5,000 people were killed in violence last year.
Kenya announced plans in July last year to lead the mission to Haiti.
But Kenya’s High Court ruled the deployment, initially expected by January, unconstitutional in the absence of a “reciprocal arrangement” with the host government.
This placed the entire mission on hold, even as the United States and Canada have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to it, and some countries have committed armed personnel.
Kenya and Haiti signed a security deal early this month that it hopes will satisfy a domestic court’s objections to its plan to send the police force to lead the U.N.-approved mission.
The head of Haiti’s national police, Frantz Elbe, has also visited Kenya on a “fact-finding mission” where he met the head of the Kenya Police Service, Japhet Koome.
