230 Kenyan police officers have been deployed to the gang-infested Carribean island nation of Haiti as an additional contingent to deal with the violence which shows no sign of abating.
Arriving in Haiti on Monday, they are replacing some 100 Kenyan police law enforcers who ended their mission.
It comes as gangs on the island continue their deadly rampages in neighbourhoods of the capital Port-au-Prince.
The Multi Security Support Mission in Haiti (MSS) was deployed last January to help restore law and order in Haiti, a country awash with gang warfare against the state, a situation which also endangers civilians.
In February the Haitian Times reported the first casualty of the Kenyan contingent, coming less than one month into the mission.
The unnamed Kenyan police officer was shot and wounded in the shoulder while patrolling in Port-au-Prince, but fellow peacekeeper, 31-year-old Samuel Tompei Kaetuai was not so lucky. He was mowed down and died from gunshot wounds during armed confrontations with gang members in Savien, leaving Kenyans at home digesting the stark news with shock and trepidation.
According to United Nations estimates, the gangs occupy 90 percent of the capital, where violence in the form of killings, rapes, kidnappings for ransom and, looting are the order of the day in spite of the presence of the Kenya-led police peacekeeping mission.
Since October last year over 70 people had been killed directly from gang-related violence and there are running street battles with the Haitian police and their helpers from the MSS who have been treated as fair game.
Haiti’s Caribbean neighours, Antigua and Baruda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, and Guyana had pledged to contribute police personnal to the MSS while Bangladesh, Benin, and Chad had made similar offers.
As a result of the deteriorating instability, the UN Security Council in September, approved the deployment of a bigger peacekeeping mission to tackle the gang violence.
Due to political instability which forced the prime minister Ariel Henry to resign last year, Haiti is being governed by a transitional government.
A cloud of uncertanty hangs over presidential and legislative elections scheduled for next year.
Haiti has not held elections in nine years.
WN/as/APA