‘We want closure’: family searches for answers over Kenyan police officer missing in Haiti | Haiti

The relatives of a Kenyan police officer who disappeared while working in Haiti told Kenya officials about their pain and anger at the Kenya officials because of the lack of definite information about what happened to him.

Benedict Kuria and some colleagues ambushed by suspected gang members in March. Haiti media reported that he had died, but Kenya said that a search for police service continued.

Kuria’s wife Miriam Watima said, ık We’ve tried many times to get information from the government, but they refused. ” “We don’t know what to do anymore.”

Hundreds of Kenya officers were assigned to Haiti as part of the United States to help the police in the Caribbean cope with widespread gang violence. More than a million people were forced from their homes in the cycle of noise, no discrimination murders, man kidnapping, gang rape and arson.

Kuria’s case revived the public concern about the participation of Kenya’s participation in the multinational security support mission (MSS), which began last year and the subject of the intensive domestic public and legal examination.

In search of an answer, Kuria’s family filed a court petition that listed the Attorney General, Police General Inspector and various ministers as participants in June. A Nairobi Court planned a hearing for September, but the family, who wanted the issue to be treated with urgency, asked for the session to be put forward.

Kuria’s mother, Jacinta Kabiru, said, “We have entrusted our son with the government.” “They should give us information.”

Kuria, a 33 -year -old management police officer, joined the MSS last July. On March 26 MSS said The day before, a team that helps to recover a haiti police vehicle stuck in a ditch that he suspected of being dug by the gangs was “not calculated” after a ambush.

Later on March 26, Kenya Police said Local leaders and police chiefs continued a search and rescue task to tell Watima’s house in Kikuyu town in the northwest of Nairobi in the Kiambu district, to tell her her husband was missing.

However, the next day, Haiti media organizations reported that Kuria was killed by quoting Haiti’s Presidential Transition Council. as he said “He fell while fulfilling his mission” and öntem he gave his life for a better future for our country ”.

Since then, his family’s desperate struggle for clarity included visits to the police who told them that a search and rescue mission was continuing and the offices of politicians. Thanks to Mbuthi Gathenji, their lawyers filed a petition to Parliament and wrote to María Isabel Salvador, the Chief Public Prosecutor of Kenya and the special representative of the UN Secretary General in Haiti.

Court’s petitions accuse the government officials to “reject and/or neglect ,, and ask the judges to give the family to the family about Kuria’s“ alleviating pain ”. To help “forcing participants to disclose information”.

“You can imagine the pain experienced by parents and relatives, G said Gathenji, Gathenji said. “We want the government to come to an end.”

Guardian, Kenya’s internal cabinet secretary, MSS and Kenya police approached.

Kenya’s leading role in the mission was due to the desire to restructure the international intervention of the US and the UN to Haiti with a multinational mission chaired by the African country, after a series of UN mission, where UN troops were accused of sexual assault of a cholera epidemic and peace protection.

Kenya, who participated in many internationally preservation, volunteered to lead the Haiti intervention. The president of William Ruto was the chance to deploy, positioning his country as a reliable international partner, and regularly burning the reputation of the police force that used violence against civilians.

The arrival of Kenya officers in June 2024 brought a little hope to Haiti, but the task fed by funds, equipment and personnel problems did not repel the criminal progress.

In April, Salvador said Haiti approached a “irreversible point”. And on Wednesday, Ghada Waly, General Manager of the UN Drug and Crime Office, told the UN Security Council that gangs now control the estimation of the capital Port-AU-Prince.

Kuria’s mother tried to determine Haiti’s violent reputation after learning her participation in the task, but it was partially motivated, motivated by the extra fee she planned to use to improve their relatives. “This is an opportunity we take as a family,” his brother Philip Kuria said.

Kuria would return this year at the end of its one -year contract. “This is a struggle, Philip Philip said. “What we want is closing.”

Kuria’s uncle Daniel Nung said that the family was open to any news. “My prayers will return to joining us,” he said. “This tension actually tortures us.”

Watima remembered his last call with Kuria while discussing academic plans for his 17 -year -old daughters. One day he hopes he will call again, he gives credit for his husband’s phone, so he won’t be disabled. Meanwhile, the government is waiting. “They should tell us if he is alive,” he said. “This is the only thing we want to know.”