KENYAN LED UNITED NATION SECURITY MISSION TO HAITI: COMPARING PUBLIC VIEWS IN KENYA AND HAITI

Abstract

Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica and south of The Bahamas. Since 2018, Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, has been the site of gang-dominated chaos. On 2 October 2023, the United Nations Security Council approved a Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission in Haiti, in the form of an international police force, to assist the Haitian government in restoring law and order. This study explored the views of a wide cross-section of Kenyan and Haitian citizens on the Kenyan-led mission to Haiti. The study employed a comparative case study research design. Convenience and snowball sampling were used. Data were collected using a semi-structured online questionnaire administered to at least 294 respondents in Kenya and 27 in Haiti, resulting in a final sample of 321. Descriptive analysis was used to explore the views of Kenyans and Haitians, and a Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare their views. Qualitative data were analysed thematically to get a clear understanding of citizens' in-depth opinions and perceptions across both countries. The legitimacy theory of state actions guided the study in evaluating the perceived legitimacy of the Kenyan-led United Nations security mission to Haiti. The findings showed that the mission lacked empirical legitimacy. The majority of respondents in both countries said the mission was unnecessary and that they did not support it. The study, therefore, concludes that although the UN security interventions may have normative legitimacy, they must be socially acceptable to achieve their objectives.