Between Washington and Nairobi, communications are ongoing. Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, has spoken on the phone twice in less than a week with Kenyan President William Ruto, whose country is tasked with leading the future international intervention force in Haiti under a UN mandate. This is a way for the United States to ensure that its partner is ready to deploy its special police units despite the recent upheavals in Port-au-Prince.

The resignation of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry from exile in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, March 12, has dampened Kenya's enthusiasm. This "has led to a fundamental change in circumstances," said Korir SingOei, Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the same day. "Without a political administration in Haiti, there is no anchor on which a police deployment can rest, hence government will await the installation of a new constitutional authority in Haiti, before taking further decisions on the matter."

In October, Nairobi responded favorably to a plea for help from the Haitian government, the US, and the UN asking for a new policing mission in the Caribbean country, which has been paralyzed by gang attacks that control almost the entire capital. Kenya is to provide a thousand men and take the lead in the mission.

The Kenyan declaration has worried the US government, which instigated the intervention plan and is visibly in a hurry to see it deployed. Having evacuated its non-essential diplomatic personnel on Sunday – which France also did – the US wants to "accelerate" the political transition, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. Under pressure from Washington, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) must urgently appoint a "presidential transition council" in Port-au-Prince. "I would be concerned of course about any delay, but we don't think that there will need to be a delay," he declared.

"I assured Secretary Blinken that Kenya will take leadership of the UN Security Support Mission in Haiti to restore peace and security as soon as the Presidential Council is in place under an agreed process," Ruto said on X. But this is not the only hurdle the Kenyan president has to overcome before he can deploy the peacekeeping force – which is to comprise some 5,000 men from Benin, Chad, Bangladesh, Barbados, and the Bahamas in addition to Kenya.

In January, the Kenyan judicial system ruled against the deployment of police officers in Haiti when the Nairobi High Court deemed it "unconstitutional and illegal." At issue was a procedural flaw explained by Judge Enock Chacha Mwita: unlike the soldiers of the national army, Kenya’s National Security Council, which is led by the president, does not have the authority to deploy regular police outside the country. "It is not contested that there is no reciprocal arrangement between Kenya and Haiti and for that reason, there can be no deployment of police to that country," Mwita said.

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