Kenyan opposition politician in new court challenge to police deployment in Haiti

A Kenyan opposition leader on Wednesday said he planned to launch a new court challenge against a plan to send police officers to Haiti.

Last October, Kenya agreed to lead a UN-authorised international police force to the troubled Caribbean nation, to help combat unprecedented levels of gang violence.

The Kenyan high court in January blocked the deployment, ruling it was unconstitutional in part due to a lack of reciprocal agreements between the two countries.

But last Friday, Kenya’s president William Ruto said he and Haitian prime minister, Ariel Henry, had signed a deal intended to fast-track the departure of Kenyan police to Haiti.

While is it not clear of the timeline of what the agreement says, Thirdway Alliance Kenya’s leader, Ekuru Aukot - who is also a lawyer - has described the whole arrangement as “hush hush”.

He believes the agreement is invalid and fails to address objections made by the judge in January.

There have also been concerns in Kenya about the wisdom of sending police officers to fight heavily-armed gangsters when the country faces security challenges of its own.

Thousands of Haitians have died and hundreds of thousands others have been displaced in the ongoing gang violence.