The Kenyan officers say some of their much-delayed additional forces will arrive by the end of this year, bringing their total to 1,000.
And the support is urgently needed. There are areas in Port-au-Prince which are under such tight gang control they are virtually impenetrable for the police.
In one such area, Wharf Jérémie, almost 200 civilians were killed by a single gang over the space of one weekend earlier in December.
In total, as many as 100 gangs are estimated to be operating in the Port-au-Prince area, with boys as young as nine joining their ranks.
And the problem only appears to be growing. According to the UN children’s agency, Unicef, the number of children recruited to the gangs has soared by 70% in a year.
One of the gang leaders to whom they flock is Ti Lapli, whose real name is Renel Destina.
As head of the Gran Ravine gang, he commands more than 1,000 men from his fortified headquarters high above Port-au-Prince.
Gangs like his have exacerbated an already dire situation in Haiti, and are known to slaughter, rape and terrorise civilians.
Gran Ravine is infamous for carrying out kidnappings for ransom, a practice which has earned Ti Lapli a place on the FBI’s wanted list.
