There have been numerous rumors and unofficial reports of casualties among the policemen of the Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission since its deployment to Haiti in June 2024, but none of them have ever been confirmed, until now.
On Feb. 23, MSS’s Kenyan commander Godfrey Otunge tweeted that “today… one of our MSS officers from the Kenyan contingent was injured during an operation in SÉGUR – SAVIEN, in the Artibonite department. The officer was immediately airlifted to Aspen Level 2 Hospital but, unfortunately, succumbed to the injuries.”
The policeman was Samuel Kaetuai, whose age has been reported as 26, 28, and 31. He was reportedly shot in the head then medivaced out of the rural Artibonite Valley by a recently-arrived Salvadoran helicopter team.
According to press reports, other MSS policemen pursued and killed the “gang member” who shot Kaetuai. The gunman presumably belonged to the Gran Grif (Big Claws) armed group, which is based in the rural town of Savien and has been battling with the MSS, the Haitian National Police (PNH), and other armed groups allied with the de facto Haitian government.
The news of Kaetuai’s death brought forth many messages of support and condolences to his family in the rural Naserian Village of Kajiado County in southern Kenya. Local Kenyan media interviewed his distraught father, Kaetuai Lesaru Salaash, and widow, Naomi, with whom Kaetuai had young two children.
But the death also brought forth a flood of outrage on social media from Kenyans who oppose the Washington-funded Kenyan police deployment in Haiti.
“Why are poor countrymen and countrywomen dying in useless imperialist wars so billionaires can profit?” asked Booker Ngesa Omole of the Communist Party Marxist – Kenya.
“Shame on the [President William] Ruto government for sending Kenyan police officers — our brave sons and daughters — to die in the chaos of Haiti, all for a measly 30 pieces of silver!” wrote @selectivenomad. “What kind of callous disregard for human life is this? Constable Samuel [Kaetuai], a 26-year-old with dreams, a family, and a future, is now dead, gunned down in a foreign land, far from home, fighting a war that isn’t ours. How many more must bleed out on Haitian soil before you admit this reckless deployment was a mistake? This isn’t peacekeeping, it’s a blood-for-profit scheme, trading Kenyan lives for international favor and U.S. dollars. The Kenyan people deserve better than a government that tosses its own into the fire for political gain, leaving families shattered and communities grieving. Bring our troops home now, or answer to the rage of a nation betrayed!”
“What positive impact does this mission help Kenya?” asked @chixyken. “Why should our young police go to fight just to finance the lifestyle of politicians and their families? How can this government of crooks explain the essence of that mission to the father or the mother of that young champ?”
Some even defended the Haitian armed groups or “gangs,” which are usually portrayed as simply criminals. “Don’t dare call the Haiti revolutionar[ies] criminals,” wrote Genesis of All. “They are youths like u, who their own government failed them. The youths across the world are being failed by useless regimes and you [are] busy calling them criminals?”
“One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist,” chimed in @clifton_mbayi. “Even the MAU MAU [a 1950s Kenyan resistance movement] were labeled criminals and terrorists by the imperialists. The innocent Samuel didn’t even know what he was fighting for. May his soul rest in peace.”
“Sending young people to early graves is the [modus] operandi of this regime,” summed up @mansamusa125.
“They should get the fuck out of other people’s country,” concurred @bigmankevTV.
In short, if more Kenyan policemen return home in body-bags, the Kenyan people’s anger could flare again, much as it did during huge demonstrations across Nairobi in 2023. It may also deepen the already low morale and high dissatisfaction among the MSS’s Kenyan troops.
Given the Trump administration’s professed reluctance to finance foreign misadventures and entanglements, this may spell trouble for the MSS in the months ahead.
