President William Ruto may be developing cold feet as far as the deployment of Kenyan police officers to Haiti is concerned.
This is after he postponed the deployment until next month to the utter surprise of many.
Speaking to BBC, Ruto, who had set to deploy officers on the 23rd of this month when he was in the U.S. on a state visit, changed the date, saying the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti in the peacekeeping mission will be in three weeks.
According to the President, the timeline would allow security arrangements before the 1,000 law enforcement officers are deployed.
He added that the security base which will house the Kenyan troops and equipment is 70 per cent complete.
His remarks came after United States President Joe Biden called for the swift deployment of the officers following another attack staged in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, where three American missionaries were killed.
Adrienne Watson, the US National Security Council spokesperson, revealed that three missionaries were fatally shot by gunmen and their bodies burnt before the gang members fled the scene.
However, Ruto revealed that the Kenyan government was awaiting the full report from the Kenyan officials who were already deployed to Haiti to assess the situation.
“I have a team already in Haiti as I speak to you,” he stated.
“Once we have that assessment that we agreed with the Haitian police and the Haitian leadership, we are looking at the horizon of between three weeks and there about for us to be ready to deploy, once everything on the ground is set.”
