Kenya Begins Deployment Of Police To Haiti As Youth Protests At Home Turn Bloody
Africa | Africa's Diaspora Communities | Kenya | Haiti June 26, 2024
Kenya has begun deployment of police officers to Haiti as nationwide youth protests at the home front turned bloody claiming at least 23 deaths. That was reported by some East African media.
According to the reports, Kenya deployed 400 police officers to Haiti on June 25, 2025. The police officers are part of a total 1000 police officers expected to be deployed by the East African Community nation to Haiti, to lead a United Nations international force for assisting the troubled Caribbean nation's police force quash chronic gang violence there.
As the Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti, their counterparts in Nairobi are said to have been clashing with unarmed youths who have been protesting for over a fortnight against a proposed budget legislation called Finance Bill 2024 that was endorsed by the country's parliament on June 25, 2026. Just after the bill was endorsed, the angry youths reportedly overpowered the police at the vicinity of the parliament complex, broke some fences, and entered the expanse of its outdoor spaces. The youths then got into the complex, vandalized it, and set ablaze one of its wings, as legislators in there fled for their lives.
The overpowered police officers are said to have gunned down at least 23 protesting youths in the clashes in Nairobi.
Elsewhere in other cities and municipalities like Mombasa, Kisumu, and Eldoret, among others, the unprecedented youth protests are said to have also escalated after the proposed budget bill was passed by parliament. In response to the escalating youth protests, the government of Kenya has reportedly deployed army troops to help its police force contain the protests.
On June 26, 2024, the country's President William Ruto succumbed to pressure from the protesting youths and withdrew the passed bill. However, it remains to be seen whether the move will stop the protests.
The failure of Kenya police force to contain the rather peaceful protests by unarmed youths, and gunning down some of the youths, may raise serious questions about whether some members of the same security force would be able to effectively lead an international force able to help tackling the notoriously violent armed gangsters of Haiti. The gangsters are said to be very brutal and control more than 80% of the capital Port-au-Prince. Trying to, for instance, gunning the gangsters down like what was done to the youths of Nairobi, may probably trigger merciless gun fight with them that would just exacerbate the problem facing Haiti.
All in all, the ongoing youth protests in Kenya present a rather complicated political circumstances for President William Ruto who has been dubbed a loyal puppet of the so called West in some quarters in Kenya and Africa at large. Paradoxically, the youths who are angry and protesting in the streets are said to be among those who gave him lots of support during the presidential election that brought him to power.
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