Acting Inspector General of Police Gilbert Masengeli has said the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) deployed in Haiti has registered significant progress.
This is even as today, August 26, 2024, marks two months since the first Kenya Police contingent was deployed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
The first team landed there on June 25, while the second one arrived a month later, on July 16.
Masengeli said that the MSS team has managed to pacify threats to public safety and security.
“Although still in its deployment phase, the MSS team continues to register significant progress, through their cooperation with the Haiti National Police and the wonderful people of Haiti,” Acting IG Masengeli said.
He said the MSS team has taken over critical infrastructure, including the airport, from gang control, and opened up critical roads that have enabled the return of thousands of Haitians who were earlier displaced.
He further stated that the NPS is also working very closely with other countries, partners, and the United Nations to ensure continued support for the MSS.
According to the acting IG, NPS officers continue to draw their NPS salaries, and the processing of their MSS deployment allowances has also been finalised.
The team and their relatives in Kenya said they are yet to receive the salaries under the UN-backed mission.
Each of the officers in the mission is supposed to get at least Sh100,000 above the salaries that they get as police officers in Kenya.
The Multinational Security Support Mission to Haiti said on Monday that the monies will be paid in the coming week.
“As a Service, we wish to commend the MSS Force Commander Godfrey Otunge, SAIG and his team for their patriotism and dedication to duty, and wish them success in their Mission to restore peace and stability in Haiti,” he added.
The MSSM is anchored under the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy and Trust Fund, which is facilitated voluntarily by donor countries.
So far, many countries including the US, have donated money to the fund, which is being processed.
‘We are happy to report that the concerned body has moved with speed to put in place elaborate mechanisms and frameworks which have operationalized the usage of the Trust Fund,” the statement from the mission read in part.
Violence in Ganthier had, by August 1, displaced nearly 6,000 residents, UN data showed.
Close to 600,000 people have been internally displaced by the conflict and hundreds of thousands of would-be migrants have been deported back to Haiti, where nearly 5 million people are suffering from severe hunger.
Kenyan police are in Haiti to help the local officials stabilise gangs that had almost overrun the capital.
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
