Kenya confident its police will end Haiti gang war

Gangs have largely overpowered the police in Haiti (AFP)

Kenya says it's confident the deployment of hundreds of its police to Haiti by January will end gang warfare there.

Last year Haiti's government appealed for help due to the spiralling gang violence.

Gangs have largely overpowered the police and now have more than three-quarters of the capital under control.

Initially, Kenyan officials spoke of around 1,000 officers going to Haiti to train local police and help protect key installations there.

But Kenya's Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua says it will be an intervention force to disarm what he called the "thugs and the gangs".

In a BBC interview, Alfred Mutua said the Kenyan police would free Haitians who had been kidnapped and free women who were being raped.

He said he did not expect there to be much violence.

Some have expressed scepticism about sending officers 12,000km (7,500 miles) away to Haiti.

Especially as there are lots of law and order challenges in Kenya and rights groups have long accused the police of atrocities including killings and torture.

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