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Kenyan lawyers seek contempt ruling over government's plan to deploy police to Haiti

Kenya has offered to send 1,000 officers to assist Haiti in addressing a deteriorating security situation (Photo: X/Courtesy)

By Mwangi Maina | Friday, May 17, 2024

Lawyers Ekuru Aukot, Miruru Waweru, and their Thirdway Alliance Kenya party first challenged the deployment in the High Court in October.

Kenyan constitutional lawyer and politician Ekuru Aukot has filed a court application seeking a contempt ruling against the government regarding its plans to deploy police to Haiti, according to his filing.

Aukot states in the urgent application that the Kenyan government has blatantly disregarded the January 26 order issued by High Court judge Chacha Mwita, which prohibited the deployment of police officers to the conflict-ridden Caribbean Island nation.

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Kenya had offered to send 1,000 officers to assist Haiti in addressing a deteriorating security situation, prompted by gang activity forcing thousands to flee their homes.

The first batch of specialised officers is due to land in the chaos-hit Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, next week.

“The Respondents/Contemnors have no regard for the rule of law and are continuing with their illegal activities despite the explicit orders of the Honourable court aforestated,” Dr Aukot says in the application.

Lawyers Ekuru Aukot, Miruru Waweru, and their Thirdway Alliance Kenya party initially contested the deployment in the High Court in October.

Despite a court ruling stipulating that officers could only deploy abroad with a reciprocal arrangement, President William Ruto announced in January that Kenya would proceed with the deployment.

The applicants emphasised the urgency of their application, noting a looming May 23 deadline for the deployment.

In March, the government announced a pause in the deployment following the resignation of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Aukot argues Haiti is not a reciprocating country as required by sections 107 and 108 of the National Police Service Act and has not been gazetteed as such and there has been no formal request from the Government of Haiti to send police officers to the island.

“There is no government in place in Haiti capable of giving such a request or signing any bilateral agreement with Kenya for deploying police officers to Haiti and there is no parliament in place in Haiti to ratify such agreement,” he said.

Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, formally resigned late last month, and a new provisional government was sworn in during a secret ceremony at the presidential palace, nearly two months after a criminal insurrection plunged the capital into chaos.

The nine-person American-backed “transitional council” was officially established during an event at the national palace in Port-au-Prince.

As its members took their oaths, Henry, who is in the US having been locked out of Haiti by the gang uprising, announced in a letter that he was stepping down.

“We have served the nation during difficult times,” wrote Henry, a neurosurgeon turned politician who came to power after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. Henry had announced in March that he was quitting.