Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale on Wednesday, October 4 declined to respond to questions on the Haiti mission.
Duale who was appearing before the Senate for a plenary session explained that the mission is not under his domain.
The Defence CS asked the Senate to instead invite Interior CS Kithure Kindiki and question him about the mission.
"I want to refer the question to the Minister of Interior. Please take time and invite Professor Kindiki to give him the statistics of the distance, how many flights will go there and the hours. That is not my domain so I'll refer to Kindiki. I’m sure the house has powers using the standing orders to invite him even this afternoon," Duale said.
The former Garissa Town MP was responding to Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale after he questioned what Kenya will gain from sending troops to Haiti.
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"Haiti is 12,119 kilometres away. It takes 13 hours of flying to reach Haiti and the cheapest flight is Ksh220,700. You have justified our presence in regional missions by attributing it to the need for us to be part of securing peace, security and stability in our region. Given these statistics, could you tell us what are the benefits and what are the intended consequences the government hopes to achieve by taking our troops to Haiti?" he posed.
Kenya is set to deploy one thousand police officers to the Caribbean nation by January 2024 following approval by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Other countries that are in the multi-national mission include; the Bahamas Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda.
President Ruto in a statement on Tuesday expressed confidence that Kenyan police officers will succeed in restoring order in Haiti.
The Head of State also said Kenya cannot turn away from Haiti as it possesses excellent international peace-mediating, peace-making, peace-building and peace-keeping credentials
