‘Illegal and invalid’: Kenya court halts deployment of police to Haiti
Al Jazeera
The court ruling comes despite the UN Security Council giving the go-ahead for the Kenya-led mission in Haiti.
A Kenyan court on Friday ruled against the government’s plan to deploy police to Haiti to lead a UN-backed multinational mission aimed at restoring peace and security in the Caribbean nation struggling with gang violence.
On Friday, judge Enock Chacha Mwita ruled that “any decision by any state organ or state officer to deploy police officers to Haiti… contravenes the constitution and the law and is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and invalid”.
“An order is hereby issued prohibiting deployment of police forces to Haiti or any other country,” he said.
The ruling comes as the Haitian government calls for the urgent deployment of a multinational force to help its overwhelmed police battle rampant violence.
Haiti, the Western hemisphere’s poorest nation, has been in turmoil for years, with armed gangs taking over parts of the country and unleashing brutal violence, with the economy and public health system in tatters.
