Close to three months after the deployment of Kenyan police to Haiti, there has been reports that the Police’s allowance has been delayed with reasons yet to be known. This comes after relatives of the police officers revealed that their keens were yet to get their pay close since they were deployed to Haiti to restore peace.Â
United States Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman has come out to apologise over delayed allowances to the Kenya police officers who were deployed to the troubled Caribbean nation of Haiti. In her response, the diplomat said she had learnt through the media that the Kenya officers were yet to be paid, and on behalf of the US she to apologised.
“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 stated.
She further added that the officers will be able to get their allowances this week most probably on Thursday or Friday.
“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.
The USA’s ambassador to Kenya response came after families of the police officers back in Kenya revealed how they are unable to carter for their children’s basic needs 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 officers 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.