Biden thanks Kenya’s Ruto for sending police to Haiti and defends keeping US forces from the mission

By AAMER MADHANI and SEUNG MIN KIM
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has offered his deep appreciation to Kenyan President William Ruto for the coming deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police forces to help quell gang violence in Haiti. Biden also is defending his decision to withhold American forces from the mission in Haiti. The U.S. has agreed to contribute $300 million to a coming multinational force that will include the Kenyan officers. But Biden said at a White House news conference with Ruto on Thursday that an American troop deployment to Haiti would raise “all kinds of questions that can easily be misrepresented.”