NAIROBI Kenya May 20 – The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and Ekuru Aukot of Thirdway Alliance have termed the move to deploy police officers to Haiti as unconstitutional and illegal.
As a result, the LSK has urged President William Ruto to cancel the deployment and obey the court orders issued earlier stopping it.
“It has come to our attention that despite the court orders, the government has sanctioned the deployment,” LSK President Faith Odhiambo said on Sunday.
Aukot had moved to court and the High Court on January 26 declared the deployment as unconstitutional on account of the absence of reciprocal provisions in Kenyan and Haitian laws, and the absence of a bilateral treaty.
The Court held that sections 107, 108 and 109 of the National Police Service Act must be complied with before any deployment is sanctioned.
The provisions demand that Haiti must be gazetted as a reciprocating country and that its municipal law has provisions similar to our National Police Service Act.
LSK added that though the Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki and the former Haitian Prime Minister executed a bilateral treaty purportedly authorizing the intended deployment of Kenyan Police officers, they were compelled, in defence of the Rule of Law, to point out that the legal requirements, as interpreted by Justice Chacha Mwita have not been met.
“The LSK stands at the forefront of upholding the principles of justice, accountability, and the rule of law within our nation. We condemn in the strongest terms possible the willful disregard to the law being demonstrated by the President and the government agencies,” she said.
“We urge the President to obey court orders, as this is the grind upon which this country strives to ensure accountability and transparency,” she added.
Aukot has also written to the US President Joe Biden and the United Nations Secretary General against the planned deployment.
“The legitimacy of Kenya’s presence in Haiti is in question. The Constitution does not authorize deployment of National Police Service outside Kenya,” they wrote.
The government has declared that the officers will be heading to Haiti this week to lead the complicated and potentially risky Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti.
The deployment, which is behind schedule, has faced a number of protracted hurdles and had at one point been declared illegal by the High court.
The officers have already undergone months of training with government officials saying they are well prepared to neutralize the gangs which are equally armed with superior and sophisticated weapons and have in the past overpowered the local police in the Caribbean nation.
According to the government spokesperson Dr Isaac Mwaura, the teams are well prepared and this is the opportunity to put Kenya in the global arena at least for the good things.
Contacted to confirm the deployment, Dr Mwaura said: “We are committed to honouring our international obligations as a government and a nation.”
The deployment coincides with President William Ruto’s 3-day state visit to the United States to discuss a number of issues including trade, investment, the regional security and the Haiti mission among others.
Already, the US civilian contractors have built living quarters from which Kenyan forces will operate, according to the US military’s Southern Command.
Haiti is not war-torn, but killings, civil lawlessness, gang violence, drugs, kidnappings, looting, extortion, and rape have been on the increase rendering the local understaffed and under-resourced police ineffective.
The Kenya-led force is expected to assist Haiti’s understaffed and under-resourced police department, with only about 10,000 officers for the nation’s more than 11 million people.
Kenya is however not the only country as ten other nations –including Jamaica, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda – have also expressed their readiness to support.
According to the resolutions, the force is expected to build the capacity of local police planning, conducting joint security support operations and also secure critical infrastructure sites and transit locations such as the airport, ports, and key intersections in Haiti.
The officers are drawn from specialized units within the General Service Unit (GSU) and the Administration Police Service (APS) including the Special Operations Group (SOG), the Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU), the Special Recce Team (SRT), the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team.
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