Why are Kenyan forces set to intervene in Haiti and how is the US involved?
Al Jazeera
When William Ruto meets Joe Biden in Washington, a Kenyan-led police mission to Haiti will top the presidents’ agenda.
Kenyan President William Ruto is in the United States for a three-day state visit in the first such trip for an African leader since 2008.
When Ruto meets his counterpart Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday, at the top of their agenda will be a multinational security intervention in the troubled Caribbean nation of Haiti – a mission that Kenya is leading and Washington is backing.
While the US has refused to contribute forces to the United Nations-backed initiative, Washington has nonetheless become Kenya’s loudest supporter and the mission’s biggest funder even as Nairobi faces domestic challenges over the strategy.
The planned deployment of police to Haiti – a first for the East African country outside the continent – has sparked fierce debates in Kenya’s Parliament and in its courts.
Here’s what we know about the planned mission, how Kenya got involved and why some are fiercely against it: