THE Kenyan parliament today approved the deployment of 1,000 police officers to Haiti to help deal with rising gang violence in the Caribbean nation.

This comes as a violent gang carried out an assault on a hospital in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The Kenyan national assembly backed a motion tabled by parliament’s committee on administration and internal security approving the government request for sending the security officers.

The heated debate saw opposition legislators rejecting the government plans for Kenya to lead a multinational policing team in Haiti, saying it violated the country’s constitution. 

Supporters of the motion said that Kenya had a moral obligation and duty to provide aid to Haiti.

The planned deployment was blocked by the High Court in Nairobi in October. 

On Thursday, the court was due to rule on a case by former presidential candidate Ekuru Aukot who said that the mission, backed by the United Nations, “was a mistake and a suicide mission.”

Burundi, Chad, Senegal, Jamaica and Belize have all pledged troops for the multinational United States-sponsored mission.

The situation in Haiti has continued to deteriorate and on Wednesday a heavily armed gang surrounded the Fontaine Hospital Centre in Port-au-Prince, trapping women, children and newborns inside until police were able to stage a rescue operation.

Hospital founder and director Jose Ulysse reached out on social media during the attack to say that gangs were torching homes around the hospital and preventing people inside from leaving. 

Mr Ulysse said that members of Haiti’s National Police force responded to his call for help and arrived with three armoured trucks to evacuate 40 children and 70 patients to a private home in a safer part of the city. 

Mr Ulysse identified those responsible as members of the Brooklyn gang, led by Gabriel Jean-Pierre, best known as Ti Gabriel. 

Mr Jean-Pierre also is the leader of a powerful gang alliance known as G-Pep, one of two rival coalitions in Haiti.