Pope Francis Visit To Kenya Confirmed!

Finally, the Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis will indeed visit Kenya in November. However, the exact dates have not been known. State House Kenya confirmed the historic visit.

This comes after speculations of the papal visit to Kenya during his 2nd visit to Africa. Pope Francis itinerary is expected to cover Uganda, Central African Republic and finally Kenya. This will be the first trip the pontiff will be making to Kenya since he became the Pope. The pope had earlier hinted about this visit when he met catholic priests but he had doubts then “ it is still uncertain, because there are organizational problems” but expressed his wish to include Kenya, but it is now confirmed.

The pope, who has recently shown a lot of support to Africa, now seems to speak in actions. Pope Francis who was elected in 2013 has been in the forefront of encouraging other countries to invest Africa. Recently Kenya was almost taken down to its knees when the Somalia-based terrorists, the Alshabab killed 147 university students in Garissa University College, a constituent college of Moi University. This attack rallied world support to Kenya, which the Pope was personally touched and personally prayed for Kenya, during the Easter Prayers, after the heinous attack. This could be one of the reasons the Holy Father included Kenya in his Africa second visit.

Pope’s visit seems to have been planned not long ago, on April 2015, Kenya Catholic Bishops had visited and held talks with the pope at Vatican, but they only brought goodwill message and greetings from the Pope. This means the Visit to Kenya by the Pope this November is a show of support to the Kenyan citizens and the government.

Kenya seems to have a good year; the world will literally be flying to Kenya. The Former US president Bill Clinton and his daughter have visited Kenya this year, Secretary of state to the US John Kerry visited simultaneously with the former president. On July, Kenya will host again their son, Barrack Obama, the president of USA and Pope Francis will be visiting in November.

Pope’s November Visit will be the first time within the last 20 years for a Catholic Pope to visit. Kenya is lucky to have been visited thrice by Pope John Paul II, the  last time being in 1995 when he visited the East Africa economic hub country.

The actual date will be released later on. A statement from President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, a catholic,expressed his anticipation to host the Pope. This comes just months after the beatification of Sister Irene Stefani Nyatha, a catholic nun who served Nyeri residents in Gikondi Village, which was the first beatification in Kenya.