The June deployment of 400 Kenyan police officers to Haiti to further U.S interests in Haiti through occupation has gone awry. As of December, 20 officers, including seniors, tendered resignations over, among other things, delayed payments. Progressives had warned against the deployment for months.
African Stream participated in an event in Nairobi called ‘Hands off Haiti!’ in January. The Pan-African Socialist Alliance organised it in opposition to the planned deployment of 1,000 police officers to Haiti.
However, a group claiming to represent the Africa4Haiti NGO, which supported the deployment, was also in attendance. When our Editor in Chief Ahmed Kaballo questioned them about why they held their professed position, they had no answer – leading us to suspect they were a ‘hired crowd,’ paid to attend by some backer of the government’s plan.
Then, our encounter became even more enjoyable. One of the Africa4Haiti’ activists’ said he wanted to share a message with the Africans following our channel – he wanted to say ‘thank you’ to Africa’s former colonial masters for bringing us the English language! (He explained his gratitude by saying English allows Africans from all over the continent to communicate effortlessly with each other.)
It was very telling. Instead of arguing why Kenyan troops should or shouldn’t go to Haiti or why Haitians need our support, he instead decided to use his air time to ‘thank our colonial masters.’ This is an issue we see throughout Africa, where we see crowds for hire often sent by politicians or NGOs to events supporting an agenda that needs to be understood.
Have a watch, and let us know your thoughts on our encounters that day!