The proposed transfer of Kenyan police officers to Haiti, a country in the Caribbean, has been ruled unlawful by the High Court.
The National Security Council is not authorized to send police officers abroad, the court ruled in a decision on Friday.
In October of last year, the National Security Council petitioned Parliament to authorize the sending of Kenyan police personnel to war-torn Haiti as part of a UN-backed security mission. The deployment has now been approved by the National Assembly.
Although the National Security Council had already given its approval for the planned deployment, any use of national security personnel outside of the nation required the approval of Parliament, as stated in Article 240 (8) of the Constitution.
Article 240 (8) stipulates: “The Council may, with the approval of Parliament, (a) deploy national forces outside Kenya for (i) regional or international peace support operations; or (ii) other support operations; (b) approve the deployment of foreign forces in Kenya.”
Parliament approved the plan in the midst of a High Court decision that temporarily halted the deployment until the head of the Third-way Alliance Kenya, Ekuru Aukot, and two other petitioners had their case heard.
Dr. Aukot contends in the petition that the Constitution does not allow for the deployment of the police force outside of Kenya, adding that doing so would be extremely important to the public interest and could only be carried out in compliance with the document’s provisions.
Kenya has committed to sending out 1,000 security guards to fight gang violence, which has been a problem for decades and is marked by frequent killings, kidnappings, and extortion.
Early in October, the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of a multi-nation security support mission under Kenyan leadership to assist the beleaguered Haitian police.
