At the end of his official visit to the United States, Ruto confirmed to the press that the base which will house the group of one thousand gendarmes is 70% completed. He also explained that this force will not have a combative character but a pacifying one and its function will be to contribute to “suffocate the criminal violence” which plagues the tiny state due to the action of armed gangs.

Ruto was received at the White House with full honors and entertained with a glittering state dinner by his hosts who urged him to complete the delayed police interposition after the death of two American missionaries in an attack by the gangs that had become the de facto power in Haiti months ago.

The police group was due to arrive in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, in the middle of this week, but its departure was postponed for “technical reasons” that were never revealed.

The approval of the contingent and its deployment encountered stumbling blocks in the Kenyan parliament, where several legislators opposed it because there is no reciprocity treaty between the two countries allowing the deployment of military forces.

Washington committed to support the African country’s police action with funding and logistics.

jrr/arm/mem/ms