Kenya and Haiti sign agreements to try and salvage plan to deploy Kenyan police to battle gangs

By TOM ODULA
Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya and Haiti have signed agreements to try to salvage a plan for the African country to deploy 1,000 police officers to the troubled Caribbean nation to help combat gang violence that has surged to unprecedented levels. Kenya agreed in October to lead a U.N.-authorized international police force to Haiti. But the Kenyan High Court in January ruled the plan unconstitutional, in part because of a lack of reciprocal agreements between the two countries. Kenya’s President William Ruto said in a statement Friday that he and Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry witnessed the signing of the reciprocal agreements between the two countries. It was not immediately clear how, or if, the agreements could circumvent the court’s ruling.