A Kenyan Airways flight landed at Toussaint Louverture International Airport shortly before 9:30 a.m. Tuesday with the first contingent of an armed security mission being deployed to help Haiti combat deadly criminal gangs.

The officers, wearing camouflage and white helmets, were greeted on the tarmac by members of the Haiti National Police, who long-awaited the force’s arrival to help them dismantle armed groups that now control more than 80% of the capital and parts of the Artibonite region, two hours to the north.

The mission’s arrival coincided with a third day of deadly and chaotic protests in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, where youth are demonstrating against a new finance bill. On Tuesday, protesters stormed Parliament and some were reportedly shot by police who have been accused of using live bullets. During the demonstrations, some protesters chanted at police, “Tunawapigania sote tukule” – We are fighting for All Our rights, (including the police); “Tunafight msiende Haiti..” – We are fighting so that you (the police) don’t go to Haiti.”

The arrival of the specialized police officers from Kenya comes more than 20 months after the Haitian government, then led by Prime Minister Ariel Henry, first requested the international community’s help and nearly a year after Kenya President William Ruto volunteered last July to answer the call by sending 1,000 of his elite cops to lead a Multinational Security Support mission.

Since then, however, it has been an uphill battle to get the mission off the ground. Opposition groups in Kenya have opposed the deployment and filed several legal challenges to block it, including one currently in the courts. Republican leadership in Washington also blocked a funding request by the Biden administration, which pledged $300 million toward equipment, training and the construction of a base of operation at the airport.

Another blow came with the leadership change in Haiti after armed gangs united and launched a broad assault on key government infrastructure in late February while Henry was in Nairobi signing a security agreement to allow the deployment to occur.

Shortly after he was forced by Washington to resign and days later, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Jamaica where the U.S. and members of the Caribbean community helped broker a new political transition in Haiti on March 11 with a nine-member presidential council.

Tasked with finding a replacement for Henry and putting in place a new government, together the new leadership has been readying Haiti for the arrival of the mission. Despite the deployment, however, the mission still has yet to share its rules of engagement with the Security Council, a step that is necessary to make it official. So far, only two agreements have been signed for now between Haiti and Kenya.

On Monday, prior to the officers’ departure, President William Ruto handed each of them a Kenyan flag, and reiterated his commitment to the mission. In all, 400 of the 1,000 Kenyan police officers had been vetted for the mission by the U.S. but not all are believed to have been deployed in the first deployment, which will take place in phases and later include police from six other nations including Jamaica, Benin and Bangladesh.

McClatchy writer Michael Wilner contributed to this report.