12:00PM (NYC/Port-au-Prince)
9:00AM (LA/Vancouver)
8:00PM (Nairobi)
In September 2023, the United Nations Security Council voted for the deployment of multinational military forces to combat gang violence in Haiti. The United States pledged U$200 million and Kenya more than 1,000 troops from its police force.
Progressive organizations and activists in Haiti and its diasporas denounce the mission, naming it as an occupation. They argue that, since 2004, Haiti has already been under the direct political, economic, and social control of the United Nations, and more precisely the United States. Moreover they recall that it is under U.S. tutelage that many of Haiti’s most murderous gangs formed and multiplied.
Similarly, progressives in Kenya and its diaspora mobilize to halt the impending occupation of Haiti. They advance that Kenyan state leaders serve as sub-imperialists of the West, especially the U.S., as Kenyan armed forces are used to repress populations within the country’s borders and in neighboring African countries.
This panel is a dialogue between Haitian and Kenyan internationalists about the implications of a Kenya-led military intervention in Haiti. It features Jemima Pierre, Professor of Global Race at the University of British Columbia (Canada) and Haiti/Americas Team-Coordinator for Black Alliance for Peace (U.S.); Georges Eddy Lucien, Professor of History and Geography at the Université d’Etat d’Haiti (Haiti); Willy Mutunga, retired Professor of Law at the University of Nairobi, former Chief Justice of Kenya, and former President of the Supreme Court (Kenya); and Boniface Mwangi, renowned photo-journalist activist (Kenya).