WATCH: Ruto Breaks Into Song & Prayer After Meeting Kenyan Police Officers in Haiti
President William Ruto on Saturday, September 21, engaged in prayers with Kenyan police officers during his visit to war-stricken Haiti.
The President landed in the Caribbean nation to assess the Kenyan-led security mission, even as experts warned that the security situation in Haiti could deteriorate further.
On his official social media handle, Ruto shared a clip of himself and tens of Kenyan soldiers engaged in a brief worship session at Haiti’s capital.
Ruto left Kenya on Friday, September 20, for the UN General Assembly in New York, but made a detour at Port-au-Prince to check in with the Kenyan soldiers.
Below is the video:
The Head of State was keen on learning how the UN-led mission to fight criminal gangs was going and to learn of the key challenges the Kenyan soldiers were facing.
“On the suggestion to transit this into a fully U.N. Peacekeeping mission, we have absolutely no problem with it if that is the direction the U.N. security council wants to take,” he said on Saturday after arriving in Port-au-Prince.
Ruto’s visit came three months after the first group of Kenyan soldiers arrived in Haiti to help quell a surge in gang violence in the country.
His detour to Haiti was significant since part of the things to be discussed in New York included the welfare of the Multinational Security Support (MSS).
The MSS’s mandate expires in October but the UN Security Council is set to renew it for another year, with a 15-member council set to vote for a 12-month renewal on September 30.
After the UN approved the MSS mission, Kenya deployed 400 soldiers to Port-au-Prince in June from an expected total of 1000. Other countries also pledged to field troops to Haiti to aid in ending gang-domination in the country, which has seen hundreds of thousands of citizens displaced.
Some of the challenges that have gripped the Kenyan police officers in Haiti include salary delays and a lack of sophisticated equipment for battle.
Last Sunday, Kenyan Police Commander to Haiti Godfrey Otunge met with Florida Deputy Commander of the Army National Guard Brigadier General William Temple and other military dignitaries where he highlighted, among other issues, the need for better infrastructure.
Besides infrastructural challenges, Kenyan soldiers in Haiti have also had to endure vehicles that lacked proper armour. Some of the vehicles also crucially lacked communication radios.
Kenyan police Commander to Haiti Godfrey Otunge meeting with Brigadye Jeneral William E. Temple and other stakeholders in the Haiti mission on Saturday, September 14 2024. PHOTO/MSSHaiti.
