The United States Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman has apologised over delayed allowances to the Kenya police officers who were deployed to the troubled Caribbean nation of Haiti.
In an interview with Citizen TV on Tuesday, Whitman was asked to respond to revelations by relatives of the police officers that their keen were yet to get their pay close to three months since they were deployed to Haiti to restore peace.
In her response, the diplomat said she was also shocked to learn through the media that the Kenya peace keepers were yet to be paid, and went on to apologise and promise pay by the end of the week.
“I was not aware of that until I saw the same report you did in the newspaper, so I have been checking with our people back in Washington DC and what I understand is that they will get their remuneration on Thursday or Friday of this week,” Whitman said.
“That was unacceptable, that should not have happened , they should have gotten their remuneration from the day they landed in Haiti. So that was error by omission or… I’m not sure exactly what happened but we will make sure that is made right,” Whitman added.
He sentiments followed a statement by Acting Inspector General Police Gilbert Masengeli that the Kenyan police in Haiti will receive their delayed pay this week.
Masengeli added that going forward mechanisms will be put into place to ensure pay is not delayed.
Whitman’s response came after families of the police officers back in Kenya revealed how they are unable to take their children to school due to lack of pay by the United Nations which approved the deployment to Haiti.
The U.S was particularly tasked with overseeing the funding of the mission, which includes remuneration for the peacekeepers and deployment of equipment.
Two months ago, U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken ordered the release of Ksh14.1 billion to support the Haiti mission. This would also cover the remuneration for the Kenyan contingent.
So far Kenya has deployed 394 police officers to Haiti, out of the pledged 1,000. The officers are mainly drawn from GSU, Border Patrol and Special Units.
Despite successfully maintaining peace in the beleaguered Haiti together with their Haitian counterparts, the peacekeepers are facing a myriad of challenges, among them advanced equipment to reclaim territories from criminal gangs.
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