The govt has started the planning for the police personnel who will be deployed to Haiti - CS Mutua
Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua has announced that the government of Kenya has started the planning logistics, required equipment for the police and psychological preparedness for the personnel who will be deployed to Haiti.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 The great majority of people of Haiti are wonderful and amazing people.
00:06 And it is a pity to see them suffer due to systematic failures.
00:12 Kenya has decided that in the same way people come from very far, they give their money
00:18 to help our people here in the continent, that our diaspora nation, African Union diaspora
00:24 nation of Haiti needs our help.
00:28 Our brothers and sisters in Haiti are suffering.
00:31 We cannot just sit when we can do something about it and keep quiet and leave them to
00:36 the gods.
00:37 We have decided to do God's will and to go and assist our brothers and sisters.
00:42 Kenya is one of the most successful and sought-after nation for peacekeeping missions and we play
00:47 our part as member of the family of nations.
00:51 We have had very successful tours by military and police in Namibia, in Sierra Leone, in
00:57 East Timor, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, among many other nations.
01:01 We've been at the forefront of bringing peace and bringing democratic initiatives from South
01:07 Sudan, the agreement was signed here, the recent peace in Ethiopia, what we are doing
01:11 in other nations, Somalia, what we are doing.
01:14 So Kenya is a country that seeks to bring peace to other nations.
01:19 And it is because of Kenya's stellar performance that the Prime Minister and the government
01:23 of Haiti requested Kenya to lead a police mission to help stabilize and bring order
01:29 to their country.
01:31 Haiti looked around and said, Kenya, please help us.
01:36 The leaders from other countries, they came to Kenya.
01:38 They said, Kenya, you have a history of helping other nations.
01:42 Kenya, you are very good at doing it.
01:44 Kenya, your brothers and sisters, Kenya, we are dying here, we are suffering.
01:49 Please help us.
01:53 So we got a request from our people of Haiti.
01:56 And as good Christians and good Muslims and good religious people, we could not turn and
02:01 look the other way when our brothers who are suffering have asked us for help.
02:05 So we decided we are going to go and help Haiti to lead a multinational police mission
02:12 with other countries.
02:13 We are in New York and other countries are coming on board.
02:17 We've got other African nations that are coming on board.
02:19 We've got other nations from all over the world.
02:21 They're saying if Kenya is leading it, we think there's going to be success.
02:24 So they're coming on board.
02:26 And we are going to have a UN resolution which will give the mandate for Kenya and other
02:32 governments to be able to send their police forces to go and police and help stabilize
02:37 Haiti.
02:38 We'll also be training the Haiti police so that they can have their numbers so that we
02:43 go, we finish our mission, we come back, we leave them with a stable country.
02:48 Because they have asked for help, we want to help them because we also care and feel
02:52 their pain.
02:53 So I want to send a message to the people of Haiti.
02:57 We assure the people of Haiti that we feel your pain.
03:01 When you cry out, we feel it.
03:04 When your children suffer, we feel it.
03:06 Your pain is our pain.
03:08 We shall stand with you at this difficult time and walk the journey towards peace together
03:13 because you deserve to live a secure and prosperous life.
03:18 You are our brothers and sisters.
03:22 So as I've said, we're working with others and we hope that we'll be able to move forward
03:27 very quickly.
03:28 In terms of timeline, we do expect the UN mandate any time now, within the next few
03:35 weeks.
03:36 Immediately after we get the mandate, there's going to be a meeting whereby different nations
03:40 will come together and decide the kind of support they are going to back Haiti by backing
03:45 the Kenyan-led force or mission so that after that now we'll be able to deploy.
03:51 We are looking at two to three months we'll be in Haiti helping our people.
03:57 If it takes long, maybe in early January, but that depends with what happens in the
04:02 United Nations Security Council where the debate and discussion is going on to pass
04:07 a resolution.
04:08 But we are committed.
04:09 We've already started planning our logistics.
04:12 We had a very good meeting this morning with the police where they were able to tell us
04:16 about their planning model, the equipment that is required, the personnel that is required.
04:20 So planning in our end has already started.
04:23 We even started teaching some of our key police officers French so they can be able to communicate
04:28 with our people when they get there.
04:30 So we are planning for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.
04:33 We get to when the whistle is blown, we'll be there to help our people.
04:36 We have to stop the women from being raped.
04:39 We have to stop the children from being killed.
04:41 We have to stop these thugs from taking over the streets and making our brothers and sisters
04:45 suffer.
04:46 We are doing it because we know that they would also do the same for us if they were
04:50 also in our position to help.
04:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]