August 4, 2023
Kenya has decided to send 1,000 troops to Haiti to help quell the month’s long unrest in the country. With that, The Bahamas has stepped up to pledge an additional 150 troops to go along with that in hopes that more regional and international partners step up to help stabilise Haiti.
The story is not The Bahamas deciding to send troops along with Kenya, the story is Kenya deciding to send troops in the first place. Who would have seen that coming? It could be easy for us to say to Kenya to send those same troops to Niger, an African country that just experienced a coup and removed their government to have a military junta in its place- something most African countries have denounced and have vowed to stand against the military junta. But, we should thank Kenya for deciding to step up. We wish more countries decide to step up.
At the end of the day it is clear that Haiti needs all of the help it can get regardless of where it is coming from. We always tend to forget Haiti and shift our focus to other crises in the world, whether it is the Ukraine, Iraq or Yemen or any other hot stop in the world. We forget that Haiti has been smouldering for years now. The assassination of Jovenel Moise just set off what was eventually about to happen any way- the collapse of the Haitian state, again.
Haiti can possibly go no lower than it is at this time now. The country has imploded and perhaps it is what was needed- a full scale collapse and a chance to start over afresh with new energy and ideas.
Haiti has potential, but how it is harnessed for the people moving forward will be the important measure by which the people of this generation will benefit.