OPPOSITION is growing to the US-backed proposal for Kenya to lead a military intervention into Haiti.

Kenya says it is ready to deploy a contingent of 1,000 police officers to help train and assist Haitian police to “restore order”  in the Caribbean republic. 

But activists slammed the proposal on Thursday as nothing more than a military occupation by an African country at the behest of the US.

US-based Black Action for Peace said: “By agreeing to send troops into Haiti, the Kenyan government is assisting in undermining the sovereignty and self-determination of Haitian people, while serving the neocolonial interests of the US, the Core Group, and the United Nations.

“No call for foreign intervention into Haiti from the administration of appointed Prime Minister Ariel Henry can be considered legitimate, because the Henry administration itself is illegitimate.”

Austin Cole, co-coordinator of the BAP Haiti/Americas Team, said: “At best, Kenya is allowing itself to be used in a violent line of neocolonial puppetry that will inevitably result in more death and imperial plunder for the masses of Haitians. 

“At worst, Kenya sees this as an easy opportunity to serve the colonial ‘masters’ and win favour for political and financial needs.” 

Some Haitians themselves have expressed scepticism saying the sexual abuse and a devastating cholera outbreak that have accompanied foreign forces in past decades don’t inspire much trust. 

But primary school teacher Florence Casimir said that while past international interventions have damaged Haiti, “the Haitian people don't have a choice at this point. 

“The Haitian people can’t fight it on their own."

Watchdogs are also sounding alarms about the human rights track record of police in Kenya, saying the force may export their abuse.

Police in the East African nation have long been accused of killings and torture, including gunning down civilians during Kenya’s Covid-19 curfew. One local group said officers fatally shot more than 30 people during protests in July, all of them in Kenya’s poorest neighbourhoods.

Louis-Henri Mars, head of the Haitian grassroots peacekeeping organisation Lakou Lape, echoed those concerns.

“People are puzzled about this,” Mr Mars said. “It may just become just another big mess.”

Human Rights Watch Kenya researcher Otsieno Namwaya said: “We had some consultations with Kenyan [civil society organisations] last week and there was general consensus that Kenya should not be seen to be exporting its abusive police to other parts of the world.”