Kenyan police in Haiti bring back ghosts of failed interventions

The possibility of foreign intervention in Haiti, Latin America’s poorest and most tumultuous nation, which has been ravaged by new layers of socio-political turmoil since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, has gained momentum in recent months.

But the country still has gaping wounds from a 15-year-long peacekeeping operation earlier this century that did not yield many positives.  

Known by the acronym MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) and led by Brazil, the operation was seen by the international community as crucial to supporting the country’s flawed public security system after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.

But the legacy of the mission included reports of troop-led massacres and the creation of a catastrophic cholera outbreak that killed thousands. 

Fast-forward to the present day, with gangs seizing control of large chunks of country, the UN Security Council voted to send a Kenya-led force of 1,000 police officers to “restore normalcy and protect strategic installations in the country” in October 2023, only four years after MINUSTAH was officially shut down.

The mission is supported by the Kenyan government, where President William Ruto said he wants to increase the size of the deployment, although he also vowed not to send any officers until the UN coughs up USD 247 million to cover its expenses.

Even so, the bill authorizing the mission was approved by the parliament in Nairobi in November, raising expectations among Haiti’s neighbors that are pushing for the idea, including the Dominican Republic...