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A Kenyan police officer deployed to Haiti as part of an international security mission was killed in action, Sunday, February 23, 2025. Police Constable Samuel Kitwai, 26, was fatally shot during a security operation in Pont-Sondé, a town in the Artibonite region, north of the capital Port-au-Prince. He was part of a patrol under the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, tasked with restoring order in a country where powerful armed gangs have seized control of vast territories, paralyzing normal life.
According to General Godfrey Otunge, the commander of the MSS, Kitwai sustained serious gunshot wounds when gang members ambushed his unit. He was quickly airlifted to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries shortly afterward.
Kitwai’s death is the first fatality suffered by the MSS since its deployment in June 2024, when Kenya answered an international call to lead a multinational force into Haiti.
Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, has endured years of political instability, economic hardship, and natural disasters. The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 left a leadership vacuum that fueled lawlessness. Armed groups quickly took advantage, turning the capital into a war zone and expanding their influence into rural regions.
By 2024, over 5,500 people had been killed in gang-related violence, while more than one million people were displaced from their homes. Schools, hospitals, and businesses shut down as kidnappings, extortion, and street battles became part of daily life. Haiti’s national police force, outnumbered and outgunned, was unable to contain the violence.
In response, the United Nations authorized the deployment of a multinational force, with Kenya volunteering to lead the mission. Despite legal challenges in Nairobi, including a court ruling that initially blocked Kenya’s deployment, President William Ruto pushed ahead, framing the intervention as a moral duty and a show of African leadership on the global stage.
Kenyan officers arrived in Port-au-Prince in mid-2024, joined by personnel from the Bahamas, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Jamaica. However, they quickly found themselves at a disadvantage. The MSS force, though highly trained, lacked the firepower and numbers of Haiti’s gangs, who are heavily armed with illegally smuggled weapons from the United States.
Earlier this month, 200 additional Kenyan police officers arrived to reinforce the mission, but security experts warn that without sustained international support, the MSS faces an uphill battle.
Kitwai’s death comes amid political uncertainty over the future of the mission. A recent decision by the Trump administration to freeze foreign aid programs cast doubt on long-term funding for the MSS. While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio later approved a waiver allowing funds to flow to the MSS and Haiti’s National Police, questions remain over whether Washington will support a transition of the MSS into a UN peacekeeping force, which would guarantee more stable funding.
The Kenyan government mourned Kitwai’s passing, with Kenya’s Foreign Ministry expressing heartbreak over the loss of one of its officers. MSS spokesman Jack Ombaka described him as a “fallen hero” who died “fighting for the people of Haiti”. He vowed that the force would “pursue these gangs to the last man standing” to ensure Kitwai’s sacrifice was not in vain.
The United States Ambassador to Kenya, Marc Dillard, extended his condolences, stating that “the United States is grateful for the courageous Kenyan police who are serving in harm’s way to keep our world safer”.
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