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<h1>Haiti in-depth: Why the Kenya-led security mission is floundering</h1>

<p>1 January 2025</p>

<p><em>This story was originally published by <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/investigations/2025/01/13/haiti-depth-why-kenya-led-security-mission-floundering">The New Humanitarian</a>.</em></p>

<p>By Daniela Mohor, Dumas Maçon and Nyaboga Kiage</p>

<p dir="ltr">The Kenya-led security support mission to Haiti is, at present, unfit for purpose. More than six months after deploying to help police wrest back control, rampant gangs have gained more territory and power while access to vital humanitarian aid for desperate civilians has dwindled.</p><p dir="ltr">But how come, and what next?</p><p dir="ltr">A months-long investigation by The New Humanitarian and Kenya’s Nation newspaper reveals that a large part of the failure is down to the mission’s lack of resources, but also that it was arguably mission impossible from the start.</p><p dir="ltr">The Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission was approved by the UN Security Council in October 2023 – more than two years after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse sent the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, spiralling downwards into new levels of lawlessness. </p><p dir="ltr">It then took the best part of a year for the United States, the main financial backer of the venture, to secure Kenyan leadership of the mission and push things forward – given little apparent appetite from international partners and considerable opposition in Kenya and Haiti.</p><p dir="ltr">The mission was initially slated to be composed of 2,500 officers and soldiers, but the 400 Kenyan police deployed in late June 2024 have largely been left alone to help the outmanned and outgunned Haitian National Police (PNH) combat heavily armed gangs who know the streets of the capital well and control nearly all of them.</p><p dir="ltr">A new batch of 150 Guatemalan military police officers landed in Port-au-Prince in early January, but most countries that pledged support to the MSS mission have failed to follow through. While nearly 590 foreign security force personnel are now deployed in the Caribbean nation, the mission remains severely underfunded and ill-equipped.</p><p dir="ltr">“I heard there were Kenyans in the country, but where are they? Why are they in Haiti if we don’t see any difference?”</p><p dir="ltr">Hopes of restoring some semblance of governance are also fading: The Transitional Presidential Council created in April 2024 to pave the way for the country’s first elections since 2016 has failed to advance its agenda due to near-constant political infighting. For millions of Haitians affected by the violence, daily life has simply gone from bad to worse.</p><p dir="ltr">“Since the mission’s arrival, gangs have taken several villages and at least seven key towns that had been spared,” said Himmler Rébu, a retired Haitian army colonel and former presidential candidate. “We’ve had <a href="https://binuh.unmissions.org/en/united-nations-investigation-report-brings-207-number-people-executed-wharf-j%C3%A9r%C3%A9mie-gang">massacres</a>; thousands of families have been displaced.”</p><p dir="ltr">In 2024, at least <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1158781">5,600 people</a> were killed in Haiti due to gang violence – about 1,000 more than in 2023 – and 2,212 were injured, according to the UN.</p><p>!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r

<p>–––––</p>

<p>The New Humanitarian puts quality, independent journalism at the service of the millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world. Find out more at <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org">www.thenewhumanitarian.org</a>.</p>

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