Kenya and Haiti signed a “reciprocal” agreement on Friday to deploy police from the East African country to lead a United Nations (UN)-backed law and order mission in the gang-plagued Caribbean nation, Kenyan President William Ruto said.

Ruto said he and Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry had “discussed the next steps to enable the fast-tracking of the deployment”, but it was not immediately clear whether the agreement would counter a court ruling in January that branded the deployment “illegal”.

Kenya had previously said that it was ready to provide up to 1,000 personnel, an offer welcomed by the United States and other nations that had ruled out putting their own forces on the ground.

But a Nairobi court said the decision was unconstitutional, in part because the two countries had not signed a reciprocal agreement on the issue.

On Friday, Ruto said he and Henry had “witnessed the signing” of a reciprocal agreement in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.

“I take this opportunity to reiterate Kenya’s commitment to contribute to the success of this multinational mission. We believe this is a historic duty because peace in Haiti is good for the world as a whole,” Ruto said in a statement.

Details of the agreement have not been made public.

The UN Security Council had approved the mission in early October but concerns in Kenya over Nairobi’s involvement prompted a court challenge.

The ruling threw into doubt the future of a multinational force long sought by Haiti’s government, which has pleaded for international help to confront violence that has cost thousands of lives.

Opposition politician Ekuru Aukot, who had filed the petition against the deployment, told AFP on Friday that he would lodge a case “for contempt of court”.

“What is emerging is that William Ruto does not care about the rule of law or the constitution of this country,” he said.

“We will question the validity of this secretive agreement,” he said.

In the face of criticism, Ruto had described the Kenyan undertaking as a “mission for humanity”, in step with its long record of contributing to peacekeeping missions abroad.

Haiti, the Western hemisphere’s poorest nation, has been in turmoil for years, with armed gangs taking over parts of the country and unleashing brutal violence, leaving the economy and public health system in tatters.

The 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise plunged the country further into chaos. No elections have taken place since 2016 and the presidency remains vacant.

Henry, who is on a visit to Nairobi, told an audience of university students on Friday that the situation “continues to worsen day after day.”

“In October 2022, we asked the world to give us a helping hand. President Ruto was the first one to agree to come to Haiti and we want to say thank you to him,” he said.

“We thank Kenya for its active solidarity.”

The multinational mission — initially approved for one year — had envisioned Kenyan police on the offensive with their Haitian counterparts, who were outnumbered and outgunned by gang members.

Five countries to date have notified the United Nations of their intent to join a Kenya-led mission to Haiti, the UN chief’s spokesman said Thursday, listing the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin and Chad.

Last year saw nearly 5,000 homicides counted in Haiti, more than double the number in 2022, according to a UN report last month.

-AFP