Finance Bill 2024: A Haiti Based Lobby’s Claims Were Ill-Advised and Uncalled For

By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga

Worth Noting:

• It is worth noting this lobby is totally opposed to the deployment of the Kenyan police officers to Haiti.
• They were using all means to have their way. These include supporting the petition filed by the leader of Third Way Alliance Ekuru Aukot who had moved to court to challenge the deployment.
• The court however declined to rule in his favor after hearing the government side.
• Bearing in mind that there is a total breakdown of law and order in Haiti. The criminal gangs had already taken key government installations and running many parts of the country. With this, the arguments by Haiti lobby was totally misleading and uncalled for.

A Haiti based lobby hit out at Kenya police for allegedly using excessive force against the protestors.

The lobby further accused President William Ruto of forcing the Finance 2024 Bill down the throats of Kenyans.

To me, the statement by the lobby had been informed by rumors and hearsay and bordered on malice. Why drag the name of the President? He is not a member of parliament which is mandated to debate and pass or reject some clauses in the Finance Bill.

Yes, as the leader of ruling UDA party, he has a right to convene and chair a parliamentary group meeting.

He cannot however force them to vote in a certain way.

The anti-finance bill demonstrations held under the banner of Gen Z were unique in many ways.

First, they had been purely organized and steered by young people aged below 30 years who were not known in the field of politics.

Secondly, most of them were educated and armed with smartphones which they were using to mobilize.

They also demonstrated a high level of boldness and courage. The young ladies also turned up in large numbers in these demos.

In light of this, the protestors seemed to hail from the middle class families.

Given that most of these youths were jobless, the question comes. Could they have organized these protests without being sponsored?

Well, according to a renowned political analyst there was a hand of a foreign power.

He asserted that the ultimate goal of this power was to destabilize the government of President William Ruto.

This is not the first time we have heard these stories. The previous attempts by foreign powers to topple democratically elected governments of Kenya did not bear fruits.

I believe even this time they were engaging in futile exercise.

In the past, the protests were organized and led by seasoned politicians including the old ones.

Back to the statement released by the Haiti lobby, could it turn out the members were pushing the agenda of that foreign power?

It is worth noting this lobby is totally opposed to the deployment of the Kenyan police officers to Haiti.

They were using all means to have their way. These include supporting the petition filed by the leader of Third Way Alliance Ekuru Aukot who had moved to court to challenge the deployment.

The court however declined to rule in his favor after hearing the government side.

Bearing in mind that there is a total breakdown of law and order in Haiti. The criminal gangs had already taken key government installations and running many parts of the country. With this, the arguments by Haiti lobby was totally misleading and uncalled for.

The Kenya police was not using excessive force against the protestors. By then, no deaths or injuries that had been reported.

In Haiti, hundreds of thousands of citizens have so far lost their lives.

The timing of the lobby’s statement was tellingly. It was released just a few days after Inspector General of Police (IGP) Japheth Koome hosted a delegation of police officers from Haiti at police headquarters in Nairobi.

The IGP assured them that the government of Kenya has finalized plans to deploy Kenyan police officers to Haiti.

Being one of the countries that heard your cry, Kenya is committed to help in restoring peace and stability in your country.

We are going to send our first batch soon.

It is worth noting that this operation is being coordinated by the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) under the banner of Multilateral Security Support Mission (MSS).

In his part, the leader of Haiti police delegation thanked President Ruto and his government for responding positively to their distress call. He assured the Kenyan police that they will work closely with them and provide them with necessary support.

Earlier report had indicated that deployment of first batch of 200 officers had been delayed once again. This was because the UNSC had not completed building the barrack where Kenyan officers would reside.

An advance team led by Deputy IG Noor Gabow which had a few days earlier visited Haiti to asses the situation had just returned back to country.

Besides Kenya, Chad, Burundi and Nigeria are among the countries in Africa which have so far agreed to send officers for the same mission.

They join those from Jamaica, Chile, Paraguay and Brenda.

Contrary to the impression created by one of the mainstream newspaper, the deployment of the Kenyan officers had not been designed to coincide with President William Ruto’s state visit to the United States of America (USA).

The decision to deploy 1,000 officers had been made before President Joe Biden made the decision to invite him.

It is worth to recall the decision to deploy our officers had been delayed.

Reached for comment, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Singoei explained why the government had put this matter on hold. He denied rumors being peddled around by the critics of President Ruto that his government had developed cold feet.

We have made this decision because of the resignation of the Prime Minister Henri Ariel.

Also, some ministers and top police officers had been forced by the Haitian gangs to resign and flee.

So, there was no government in place to receive our officers and direct them on how to carry out the operations, the PS reiterated.

The Government of Kenya believes in the constitution and rule of law. So, in Haiti, it looked forward to work with a constitutional authority. This is position would be adopted by other countries across the world which had agreed to join the United Nation led Multilateral Security Support Mission (MSS). The Haitian transitional council has since appointed a new Prime Minister.

Earlier, I had written an article that goes. I had been following with interest the debate surrounding the plan to send 1,000 Kenyan police officers to the troubled nation of Haiti.

The critics of President William Ruto want Kenyans to believe that Kenya is the only country sending officers to that country. This is not true.

President William Ruto had earlier hosted the Prime Minister of Haiti Henri Ariel at State House Nairobi. The two leaders signed an agreement paving the way for deployment.

Reports indicate that parliament and the Court of Appeal have ratified the decision. This showed the law was being followed to the letter and spirit.

So the claims by Dr Ruto’s critics that he was forcing the decision down the throat of Kenyans did not hold any water.

Having read sections 107,108 and 109 of the National Police Service (NPS), I’m persuaded to believe that the decisions that the President had made so far were within the law.

I heard the Cabinet Secretary for Interior Kithure Kindiki elaborating this matter further.

He stated that the deployment cannot be done without an approval of Parliament. Granted, I’m persuaded to believe President Ruto equally shares his sentiments.

The constitution is the supreme law of the land.

It is wrong to point an accusing at President Ruto.

Given this scenario, the grounds cited by those opposed are weak.

Kenyans can only listen to them if they manage to convince the court that the three sections are unconstitutional and should be removed from NPS Act.

As we know, the people of Haiti had been in big trouble. The vicious marauding criminal gangs have forcibly taken over and overrun thier country

For the starters, I want to share with them some of the atrocities that were being committed there.

The gangs were raping women and chopping the heads of thier fellow citizens. The children were not spared.

The hospitals and schools had been closed and the main roads blocked. More than ten Police stations have run down. A prison has been broken into and thousands of prisoners secured their ‘freedom’.

The staff of humanitarian and charitable organizations was being targeted. They were blocked from accessing the camps where hundreds of thousands of Haitians had sought refuge to offer them food and medications.

This is the reason why Haitian leaders, who were on the run and some besieged, had pleaded with UN to intervene.

If you ask historians, this is what they would tell you about Haiti. This was the first country to emancipate itself from the colonial slavery. The people living in this caribbean nation are Africans.

President Ruto remembered this while explaining why Kenya is touched with thier pains and agony.

The people of Haiti are human beings just like us. Taking cognizant that Kenya is a member of the community of nations, it is wrong to sit and watch when they are suffering.

It is worth noting this is not the first time that the government of Kenya is sending security personnel to join the Africa Union or United Nations peace keeping missions.

The history of the previous Kenyan administrations is replete with this.

The previous deployments were approved at a time when Kenya had fallen far short of meeting the UN requirement of the ratio of 1: 450. This means one police officer taking care of 450 citizens.

I have heard the critics of Ruto raising this as another concern. Why now?

They never raised it during the reigns of the previous governments.

Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi

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About the Author

Joseph Mutua Ndonga

Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a Writer and Political Analyst based in Nairobi

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