Why Kenya's mission to Haiti will be challenging, Foreign Policy expert explains

Johanna Leblanc, a Foreign Policy Expert with roots in Haiti, has painted a grim picture of the challenges Kenyan police officers are set to encounter in their attempts to liberate the Caribbean nation from armed Haitian gangs now that the United Nations Security Council has authorized a foreign security mission to Port-au-Prince.

Speaking on Citizen TV's 'The Explainer Show' on Tuesday, Leblanc firstly highlighted that Haitian police, who will be working alongside Kenyan police during the mission, are severely ougunned by the Haitian gangs.

"The Haitian National Police does not have the proper weapons. The gangs in Haiti have more sophisticated weapons than the Haitian police," she said.

She went on to underscore that Kenyan police will find communicating with locals difficult since the main languages used in Haiti are French and Haitian Creole, which is spoken by the vast majority of the population.

"So how is it that the Kenyan police force will be able to communicate with the people they are there to serve. When I was a senior staffer at the US Congress, I had made recommendations to work possibly with police from Franco-phone Africa because of reasons like language barriers and culture," she said.

Port-au-Prince, Leblanc continued, is a highly populous city further adding that Kenyan police officers will have a difficult time separating the wheat from the chaff as far as identifying and de-arming Haitian gang members is concerned.

"So how do you properly target your perpetrators and how do you de-weaponise some of these gang members in Haiti?" she posed.

Leblanc likewise highlighted the rampant lawlessness in Haiti which she attributed to a poor economy and a felled government.

"Right now you have a Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, who is ruling by decree, there is no Parliament or one elected official from the Republic of Haiti as of right now," she said.

She however noted that if the ruling Haitian government and the international community sets up proper parameters to fully support the mission and improve Haiti's economy then it could be successful.

"The US and Haiti's other international partners need to be realistic and go to the root cause of the issue," said Leblanc.

"We are not dealing against people who have an ideology, we are talking about youth who just don't have access to economic opportunities so therefore it is so easy for them to be recruited by gangs. The US and the multi-national force being deployed must draft a policy that will bring about economic prosperity to the country. We are talking about trade and investments, not humanitarian assistance."