Remarks · 3 October 2023
On 21st of September, I stood before the General Assembly of the United Nations to press the case for the United Nations Security Council to deliver a framework that would facilitate the deployment of a multinational security support mission to Haiti, as part of a holistic multilateral response to the challenges faced by that nation. Specifically, I pleaded for a resolution under Chapter 7 of the Charter, with appropriate provisions to facilitate support for the Haiti National Police in enhancing its capacity to effectively provide security to the people of Haiti, their infrastructure and property.
I am delighted that today, the Security Council has directly answered this call with UNSC Resolution 2699 (2023), which mandates the Multinational Security Support Mission to reinforce the Haiti National Police with operational support and other joint interventions, to enhance its institutional capacity, with the aim of increasing its effectiveness in defeating the onslaught of criminal gangs, and the rampant violent crime, human, arms and drugs trafficking, as well as other atrocities.
The mission is also mandated to secure the country's critical infrastructure including air and seaports as well as other vital transit arteries and intersections.
I welcome the resolution as an overdue and critical instrument to define the multinational mission. The mission is a foundational intervention, to provide the necessary conditions for Haiti to consolidate its development and governance. It is therefore absolutely essential that resources as well as operational scope available to the UN team, as well as other humanitarian and development actors on the ground in Haiti, be appropriately reinforced.
The situation in Haiti demands, as a matter of humanitarian consideration, moral responsibility and fundamental justice, that actions be scaled up significantly to meet the demands of emergency relief, humanitarian aid, support for livelihoods and major interventions in public health and environmental protection.
As we look forward to the imminent COP28, I also call the attention of states, international organisations, philanthropies and other institutions to attend to the severe environmental degradation in Haiti, which calls out for the urgent mobilisation of collective action.
We express our determination that this mission will provide a different footprint in the history of international interventions in Haiti, and emphasize that it is aimed solely at providing an appropriate environment for the leadership, both of the political and civil society sectors to usher in stability, development and democratic governance, through a political framework owned and driven by the people of Haiti.
The resolution marks an important moment in the history of global multilateralism, as we engage international collective action that places human security and dignity at the same level as state security and sovereignty, and enables the nations of the world to discharge a collective moral duty of securing justice and security for all peoples of all nations.
This is a mission for humanity, which connects boldly and directly with the founding principles of the United Nations, and affirms our shared hope that justice is finally coming to the people of Haiti, who have borne the brunt of colonial plunder and repression, as well as post-colonial retaliation and exploitation, leaving them vulnerable to geological, climatic and epidemic calamities.
This moment also affirms the Pan-African commitment to our continent's unity together with the African Union's policy of solidarity with the African Diaspora in observance of our sacred duty towards our own flesh and blood, carried into captivity to suffer in chains, in a world far away from home, and punished most severely over the centuries for claiming for themselves freedom - the most basic right of every human being.
When newly independent states were investing in the future by building infrastructures, setting up systems of self-governance and developing capacity to flourish in freedom, Haitians were being forced to invest in a cruel past by being made to pay for refusing to be slaves. As a result of this injustice, perpetrated by colonialists with the silent connivance of international institutions, Haiti lost decades of development opportunity, and became vulnerable to calamities. It has endured devastating geological and extreme weather disasters which have left the state and its economy strained to the utmost and unable to cope with the challenge of providing basic services.
For us in Kenya, this mission is of special significance and critical urgency. We experienced the harrowing brunt of colonialism, as well as the long, difficult and frustrating struggle for freedom against those that can influence international institutions to frustrate justice. In our struggle, we always had friends, not an overwhelming multitude of powerful allies, yet nevertheless true, loyal and determined friends. The people of Haiti, our dear friends, today stand in need. It is our fundamental moral obligation to be their friend indeed, by standing with them.
Our nation possesses excellent international peace-mediating, peace-making, peace-building and peace-keeping credentials. From East Timor and the former Yugoslavia to Eritrea and Angola all the way to Sierra Leone, we have always stood ready and willing to do our part to bring peace, security and stability.
This is why we cannot turn away from Haiti. Doing nothing in the face of human suffering is therefore absolutely out of the question.
Our firm position as African peoples has been for the international community to rally together in global collective action in pursuit of just and positive ends. For this reason, we must never forget that Haiti's troubles were inflicted through the improvident policies of colonial retaliation, which underpinned the continuity of atrocities spanning slave trade, to colonialism, post-colonial crimes and outright injustice.
We, therefore stand in solidarity with the Caribbean Community's Reparations Commission in their pursuit of accountability for the evil and cruel actions against African populations, including enslaved persons, together with their children and are confident that today, we stand at the threshold of a sequence of reparative measures including debt cancellation to free Haiti from shackles of an ugly past that bind them even now. If any peoples ever deserved a break, they must be the people of Haiti.
We are delighted for the support this mission has attracted globally, because it makes us stronger and success feasible. I commend the Security Council for making this moment possible, and extend special appreciation to the United States and Ecuador for the consultative, inclusive and focused endeavour, which has proved critical to the outcome.
I also take this opportunity to extend a warm “thank you” to our African compatriots in the Security Council: Gabon, Ghana, and Mozambique, for their stewardship of the process, and all other members of the UN Security Council for their support which yielded a resolution that is aligned with the principles and values of the AU's constitutive Act.
I also extend deep gratitude to the Caribbean Community's Eminent Persons Group of The Rt. Hon Perry Christie, The Hon. Bruce Golding and The Hon. Dr. Kenny D Anthony, for making available the good offices of CARICOM to the government and people of Haiti, and express my great admiration for their steadfast commitment to this cause. We shall succeed in Haiti. We must not fail the people of Haiti.
Thank you. 3RD OCTOBER 2023 STATE HOUSE, NAIROBI.