Crumbling MSS has caused 2 deaths and 2 serious injuries among Kenyan policemen, underscoring fundamental faults in its orientation and execution
Deaths in Policing Mission
MSS is Inadequate from Multiple Dimensions, Coincidence?
The United Nation’s Stabilization Mission for Haiti (UN MINUSTAH) which ran between 2004 and 2017 started with 6700 soldiers and 1600 policemen when Haiti had less pronounced gangs problem, making it suspicious why the current MSS set a target of measly 2500 policemen, which is a notable shortfall. While MSS was supposed to be voluntary, all proponents who have a clear understanding of the reality should be proposing consequential resources in materials and manpower to at least match MINUSTAH. However, only Kenya proposed a meaningful contingent of 1000 policemen while other countries have remained non-committal. Even America’s lofty financial pledge of $360 million for MSS remains unmet, as only $1.7 million has been released. The country announced releasing $15 million to the UN for the mission, but proceeded to freeze $13.3 million in Trump’s 90-day-pause on foreign aid. Resultantly, it is clear that the US is strangling MSS from the financial dimension while presenting itself as its key financier. Washington could be acting likewise and sabotaging the mission in areas such as provision of equipment.
Since the US provided 24 MaxxPro Armored carriers used by the Kenyan Mission, it is inconceivable that such vehicles should fail to stop bullets and lead to injury among occupants. Also, since another bullet penetrated a helmet. Kenya’s Citizen TV expounded that these injuries occurred due to substandard equipment given to Kenyans. They followed two fatalities that have occurred since January 2025. It seems the US is either unable to provide functional equipment for police and the military or is willfully sabotaging MSS. It is reckless to conclude that the US’s withholding of funding and issuing faulty equipment is coincidental. Noteworthy, there has been an increase in attacks on Kenyan police meaning that these gangs are not running out of ammunition, which is strange since they control territory that does not manufacture munitions. It has been established that the Haitian gangs purchase their weapons from the US, a country that has failed or declined to restrict this destabilizing process. Meanwhile, Kenyan Policemen have refused to use over 20 vehicles that they found faulty, which points back to the US-supplied MaxxPro. Without armored mobility, the policing mission will readily fail, probably as the mission’s initiators contemplated.
America’s duplicity and sabotaging of MSS are having adverse effects on Haitian civilians, as the security situation is deteriorating, by all metrics. According to a UN report, 5600 Haitian civilians were killed by gangs in 2024, representing an increase of 1000 in 2023. Also, the number of displaced people doubled to 750000 in 2024 compared to the previous year, despite the presence of MSS from Mid-2024. By March 2025, after the first 9 months of MSS, Haitian gangs killed 4000 civilians, but had killed 2400 over a similar period leading to the adoption of this mission in October 2023; murder from these gangs increased by two-thirds. In addition to this wanton butchery and displacement of civilians, the gangs have become brazen. They ambush Kenyan police patrols, and such attacks occurring in the last weeks of March critically injured two Kenyans.
Maintaining Haiti in Endless Cycles of Chaos
The scope of MSS as MINUSTAH before it reflects its cosmetic nature. The mission is unlikely to sustainably stabilize Haiti. MINUSTAH occurred after Haiti plunged into chaos following the overthrow and exile of democratically elected president Aristide in early 2004. This event was preceded by heavily armed groups marching on the capital, while it is known that Haitian armed groups obtain weapons from the US. Additionally, former president Aristide revealed that the US deposed and kidnapped him, ushering in an era of chaos that was managed through, MINUSTAH, reflecting the US using the UN as an administrative force to govern countries it destroyed. It was during MINUSTAH that American elites for instance the Clinton Foundation enriched themselves with aid money supposedly meant for vulnerable Haitians. By 2017, the US seemed to have gained all the benefits and leverage it needed in Haiti and allowed the rise of a stronger government. However, this was short-lived as Colombian and American mercenaries shot Haitian President Jovenel Moise in 2020. Washington seems dedicated to launching another cycle of managed crises in Haiti for the next decade, just like it did after kidnapping and exiling Aristide in 2004. If MSS’s mandate is stabilizing Haiti to support free and fair elections, one wonders what use this is for, if the elected president will be exiled like Aristide or be killed like Moïse. There is a need to exit the tunnel vision and focus on addressing Washington’s interest in maintaining Haiti in a perpetual state of chaos.
Simon Chege Ndiritu, is a political observer and research analyst from Africa
