US backs sending Kenyan police to Haiti despite warnings of abuse

President William Ruto is received by Inspector General Japhet Koome at the JKIA upon jetting back into the country after a four-day visit to Germany and Belgium. [PCS]

As the U.S. government was considering Kenya to lead a multinational force in Haiti, it was also openly warning Kenyan police officers against violent abuses. Now, 1,000 of those officers might head to Haiti to take on gang warfare.

It's a challenging turn for a police force long accused by rights watchdogs of killings and torture, including gunning down civilians during Kenya's Covid-19 curfew. One local group confirmed that officers fatally shot more than 30 people in July, all of them in Kenya's poorest neighborhoods, during opposition-called protests over the rising cost of living.