'Truly a Disaster': Biden's Foreign Aid Coordinator Disses $300 Million Plan to Send Kenyan Cops to Haiti

Daniel Fitzgerald, a State Department Official responsible for allocating U.S. foreign aid to the Caribbean, told a Veritas investigative journalist that President Biden’s $300 million plan to send Kenyan cops to fight gangs in Haiti is “truly a disaster.”

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The Kenyan-led mission, authorized by the United Nations Security Council in October 2023, is expected to be deployed soon to assist Haitian police in dealing with criminal gangs that have taken over the country.

Fitzgerald said that funding for the mission is currently delayed in Congress by Republicans who want more oversight before releasing the funds. He admits that while the State Department could “legally and technically” push the funding through without Congress, he admits it would be “very bad” to do that.

President Ruto of Kenya visited the White House in late May 2024 and gave a press conference with President Biden discussing this mutual partnership for Haiti assistance. It was the first time in over 15 years that an African leader had been invited for a U.S. state visit. Behind the scenes, Fitzgerald expressed skepticism that the ever-growing expense to fund the Kenyan force, will be anything more than a disaster.

“It’s truly a disaster and we’re throwing so much money at it. And I don’t think anything will come about [sic] it.”

Fitzgerald told our journalist that most Americans are unaware of the “niche” projects that the U.S. State Department funds around the world. When it comes to Haiti, however, he said there is a motivation that goes beyond what is expressed publicly – keeping Haitians in Haiti.

“It’s so close to Florida that there’s a migration angle to it that people don’t want… Yeah [we don’t want them coming to Florida from Haiti].”

He shared that a history of failed international interventions in Haiti and its “symbolic importance” as the first black republic means that people, particularly in the Congressional Black Caucus, “feel obligated, responsible to care.”

Fitzgerald isn’t confident that America’s latest attempt to ‘throw money’ at the corruption problems in Haiti will be any more effective than previous installments of U.S. aid.

“It’s a lot of money. But that’s like chump change compared to what we’ve dropped in Haiti before… We dropped a whole 2.1 billion dollars for their recovery and look where it’s gotten us.”

In Kenya, the mission is also controversial. A Kenyan High Court ruled that the operation is unconstitutional and illegal. Despite these legal hurdles, Kenyan forces are expected to dispatch to Haiti within the next two weeks.

President William Ruto told ABC News why his country is motivated to send Kenyan police to secure a nation now 80% governed by armed gangs, “Every country that believes in freedom, democracy, self-determination, would want peace everywhere in the world and that is why Kenya's stepping forward to provide the leadership in Haiti.”

However, Fitzgerald in the U.S. State Department sees it less nobly: “The president [Biden] wants to do it, then like, we’re doing it.”

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