Kenya halts deployment of police to Haiti in the absence of legal authority in the Caribbean nation

Kenya halts deployment of police to Haiti in the absence of legal authority in the Caribbean nation

Under the plan, the UN-backed multinational police led by Kenyan officers was to help quell gang violence that has long plagued Haiti. But violence escalated sharply since February 29, with gunmen burning police stations, closing the main international airports and raiding the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

Read more
Like for like: Just like Kenya, Haiti’s political elite depend on street gangs to grab and wield power

Like for like: Just like Kenya, Haiti’s political elite depend on street gangs to grab and wield power

Haiti’s prime minister was last seen in Puerto Rico, negotiating his return to a homeland gripped by violence and controlled by heavily armed gangsters. With his fate in the air and the situation in Haiti deteriorating by the day, the world had been left to wonder whether the country will...

Read more
Anarchy: US forces fly in to bolster security at embassy in Haiti, evacuate nonessential staff

Anarchy: US forces fly in to bolster security at embassy in Haiti, evacuate nonessential staff

Caribbean leaders have called for an emergency meeting on Monday in Jamaica on what they called Haiti’s “dire” situation. They have invited the United States, France, Canada, the United Nations and Brazil to the meeting.

Read more
US Foreign Secretary talks to Kenyan president about urgency of the Haitian political crisis

US Foreign Secretary talks to Kenyan president about urgency of the Haitian political crisis

Kenya announced last year it would lead the force but months of domestic legal wrangling have effectively placed the mission on hold.

Read more
How Kenyan activists embarked on mission to end gender-based violence as attacks on women spike

How Kenyan activists embarked on mission to end gender-based violence as attacks on women spike

Kenya’s Demographic and Health Survey of 2023 found that more than 11 million women – or 20 per cent of the population – have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner during their lives, with 2.8 million of those women having experienced this type of violence in the last 12 months.

Read more
Heat is on: Kenyan women among others whose plight is to be addressed in food supply chain

Heat is on: Kenyan women among others whose plight is to be addressed in food supply chain

Women are less able to adapt to heat than men, explains Kathy Baughman McLeod, chief executive of Climate Resilience. In Pakistan, hot and crowded homes cause sleepless nights for all, but cultural norms require women to stay indoors, while men can seek cooler conditions outside.

Read more
UN says Haiti’s deteriorating security has compromised healthcare as government extends state of emergency

UN says Haiti’s deteriorating security has compromised healthcare as government extends state of emergency

Authorities first announced a state of emergency on Sunday after fighting escalated, inmates were broken out of prison by armed gangs, and an estimated tens of thousands were displaced while Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Kenya, seeking its leadership of an international force intended to fight the gangs.

Read more
World questions whether Haiti PM Henry is fleeing from gangs at home or navigating safe return after Kenya trip

World questions whether Haiti PM Henry is fleeing from gangs at home or navigating safe return after Kenya trip

Prime Minister Ariel Henry travelled to Kenya last week to seal a deal to launch a UN-backed multinational security force to fight gangs in Haiti, which sparked violence and calls by a top gang leader for him to step down and stay away from the country.

Read more
Prospect of gangs taking control of government in Haiti is forcing US to push PM Henry to speed up transition

Prospect of gangs taking control of government in Haiti is forcing US to push PM Henry to speed up transition

Jimmy Cherizier, alias Barbeque, who leads a broad alliance of criminal gangs that have been fuelling a dire humanitarian crisis in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, has signalled the gangs could fight the proposed mission as a united front and that the city’s international airport is no longer secure.

Read more
Drink-and-Drive: How Kenya’s ex-president signed away standard gauge railway deal with China without reading it

Drink-and-Drive: How Kenya’s ex-president signed away standard gauge railway deal with China without reading it

The SGR contract left no room for rescheduling of the loan of approximately Ksh400 billion ($3.8 billion). The government, it now emerges, had to sit down with unwilling Chinese government to insert a clause in the agreement that now allows for rescheduling of repayment or renegotiating the loan without ceding sovereignty.

Read more