Biden thanks Kenya President for sending police to Haiti; defends keeping US intervention away

Joe Biden. Pic/AFP

US President Joe Biden on Thursday expressed deep appreciation to Kenyan President William Ruto for the coming deployment of Kenyan police forces to assist in curbing gang violence in Haiti, reported news agency AP. He also defended his decision to withhold American forces from the mission in the beleaguered Caribbean nation.

The United States has agreed to contribute $300 million to a multinational force that will include 1,000 Kenyan police officers, but Biden argued that an American troop presence in Haiti would raise "all kinds of questions that can easily be misrepresented." The Democrat came into office in 2021 pledging to end U.S. involvement in so-called endless wars in the aftermath of 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Haiti is in an area of the Caribbean that is a very volatile," Biden said at a news conference with Ruto, who was in Washington for the first state visit to the U.S. by an African leader since 2008. "There's a lot going on in this hemisphere. So we're in a situation where we want to do all we can without us looking like America once again is stepping over and deciding this is what must be done."

As per the AP report, Ruto will be honored by Biden with a state dinner on the White House grounds in the evening. He also gave a climate policy address and met with former President Barack Obama.

Ruto is facing legal challenges in Nairobi over the decision to commit Kenyan forces to a conflict thousands of miles from home when his own country has no shortage of economic and security challenges. He claimed that Kenya, as a democracy, has a duty to help.

"Kenya believes that the responsibility of peace and security anywhere in the world, including in Haiti, is the collective responsibility of all nations and all people who believe in freedom, self-determination, democracy and justice," Ruto said. "And it is the reason why Kenya took up this responsibility."

Some analysts say his move could run afoul of a Kenyan High Court ruling in January that found the deployment unconstitutional because of a lack of reciprocal agreements between Kenya and Haiti. A deal was signed in March, before Ariel Henry resigned as Haiti's prime minister, to try to salvage the plan.

As per the AP report, Kenya's moving ahead "gives the impression that the country is lawless and does not believe in the rule of law," said Macharia Munene, an international relations professor at United States International University-Africa.

Haiti has endured poverty, political instability and natural disasters for decades. International intervention in Haiti has a complicated history. A U.N.-approved stabilization mission to Haiti that started in June 2004 was marred by a sexual abuse scandal and the introduction of cholera, which killed nearly 10,000 people. The mission ended in October 2017.

Biden and Ruto also called on economies around the globe to take action to reduce the enormous debt burden crushing Kenya and other developing nations.

The call to action, termed the Nairobi-Washington Vision, comes as Biden presses his appeal to African nations that the U.S. can be a better partner than economic rival China. Beijing has been deepening its investment on the continent ' often with high-interest loans and other difficult financing terms.