Kenya Court Rules Haiti Police Deployment Is 'Illegal'

A Kenyan court on Friday ruled against the government's plan to deploy police to Haiti to lead a UN-backed multinational mission aimed at restoring order in the gang-plagued Caribbean nation.

The ruling comes as Haiti's government calls for the urgent deployment of a multinational force to help the country's overwhelmed police battle rampant violence.

The UN Security Council gave the go-ahead in early October for the Kenya-led mission, which has faced criticism at home and a legal challenge filed at the Nairobi High Court last year.

On Friday, judge Enock Chacha Mwita ruled that "any decision by any state organ or state officer to deploy police officers to Haiti... contravenes the constitution and the law and is therefore unconstitutional, illegal and invalid."

"An order is hereby issued prohibiting deployment of police forces to Haiti or any other country," he said.

There was no immediate response from the Kenyan government to the ruling.

President William Ruto earlier described the Kenyan undertaking as a "mission for humanity" in a nation ravaged by colonialism._AFP

Haiti's foreign minister on Thursday pleaded for the deployment to be speeded up, telling the UN Security Council that gang violence in the country was as barbaric as the horrors experienced in war zones.

"The Haitian people cannot take any more. I hope this time is the last time I will speak before the deployment of a multinational force to support our security forces," Jean Victor Geneus told the council.