Kenyan president stops in Haiti en route to UN. A key Haitian leader is not going

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Kenya President William Ruto is promising to send an additional 600 police officers to Haiti over the next two months and to plea for additional money to fund a struggling, ill-equipped international armed mission to the country headed by his East African nation.

Ruto made the announcement Saturday during a brief stopover in Haiti while on his way to this week’s high level meeting of world leaders at the United Nations. Ruto currently has 400 specialized police officers in Haiti as part of the first contingent of foreign security personnel involved in the U.N.-backed and largely U.S. funded Multinational Security Support mission.

After arriving onboard a Kenya Airways flight at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Ruto descended the stairway and was greeted by members of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council and the force commander of the Multinational Security Support mission, Godfrey Otunge.

“You have represented the people of Kenya with courage, professionalism, selflessness, compassion and efficiency,” Ruto told his troops, noting he made the visit to check on their progress. “Your success is not only going to be the success of the National Police Service, it is going to be the success of the people of Haiti and the success of all people who believe in peace, in stability, in dignity and in democracy and I am very confident that you have what it takes to restore peace.”