Former U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Dan Foote said in an exclusive interview on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show that former HP CEO Meg Whitman, who now serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, is the official behind the security deal between Kenya and Haiti.
Last month, Kenya and Haiti signed a security deal that provides for 1,000 Kenyan police officers to lead a peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country to address chaos caused by gang violence since the 2021 the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
Foote, who was appointed as special envoy in July 2021 before exiting the position two months later due to the Biden Administration’s policy in regards to Haiti, said the deal between Kenya and Haiti was organized by Whitman, who came up with the idea “on her own.”
“From what I can tell, the U. S. Ambassador to Kenya, Meg Whitman, came up with this idea on her own,” Foote said.
Foote explained that Kenya accepted the deal to provide security to Haiti because it is a “cash cow” for the poor nation.
“That’s always great to have people making Latin America foreign policy from Africa. She got interest from President William Ruto of Kenya and it’s a cash cow for peacekeeping countries, particularly poor ones, which is why you see countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Uruguay or some of the bigger peacekeeping countries in the world, so the Kenyans agreed, ‘Okay, we’ll lead it.’ President Ruto wants to have a more international platform, etc., and the U. S. is like, ‘Great!’,” Foote added.
Foote also pointed out specific flaws of the deal, explaining how this is the first time Kenya has ever sent more than 450 of its personnel on a peacekeeping mission and pointing out the language barrier between Haitians and Kenyans.
“The problem is there’s going to be a thousand Kenyan police. The Kenyans have never sent more than 450 personnel on any peacekeeping mission and they’ve never led one and they’ve never done one out of Africa where they’re speaking a different language, so it’s going to be hard,” Foote said.
In regards to Haiti’s new transitional presidential council being sworn in this week, Foote said he is “hoping and praying” the country’s new leadership is successful in reforming the country and reclaiming it from violent gangs, however, admitted he is “not optimistic.”
“I hope this council is successful and Haitians hope this council is successful, but hope is not a strategy and it just does not look good from the beginning here. The United States…chose seven Haitians, two observers, so there’s nine people on this council and it includes the party of Ariel Henry that just finished running Haiti into the ground over the last 14 years. So there’s no legitimacy as a result there and it’s a power sharing agreement. It’s not a unity agreement. So it’s a nine way arm wrestling contest is what it’s going to be. People are going to be constantly backstabbing, etc.,” Foote explained.
“The biggest problem I see – because their major challenge is restoring security as quickly as possible – is nobody on the council has any real security experience. They don’t have a vision or any unity and what’s really scary is the Biden Administration, which forced this kind of new transitional government construct on them, doesn’t have a plan for their multilateral security support mission. So no one’s really leading the security part of this thing. The Biden Administration thinks that these nine Haitians that they chose are just going to know how to restore security. That’s not the reality, but the population wonders why nine people get to choose Haiti’s future and the 11 million of them get no voice in it. So I’m not optimistic, but as I said, I’m praying and I’m hoping that this can be successful,” Foote added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “Ambassador Meg Whitman” by US State Department.
