Pope touches down in Kenya for start of African tour

Pope Francis arrived in Kenya’s capital Wednesday evening, beginning his first trip to Africa by greeting throngs of people, waving and shaking hands on the airport runway.

“In a world which continues to exploit rather than protect our common home, they must inspire the efforts of national leaders to promote responsible models of economic development”, he said.

Millions of African Catholics, who represent what is expected to soon be the largest flock in the world, are expected to gather to see the Pope, presenting huge challenges for the security forces of the three countries.

Nearly as soon as Pope Francis alighted from his flight to Kenya’s capital on his first trip to Africa, he sent a powerful message of humility and equality.

“To the extent that our societies experience divisions, whether ethnic, religious or economic, all men and women of good will are called to work for reconciliation and peace, forgiveness and healing”, he added.

The opening of the door will powerfully reflect the Pope’s concern for those on the fringes of the Catholic community and his desire to create a “poor Church for the poor”, said Vatican experts.

A harsh new anti-homosexuality law was struck down previous year by the constitutional court in Uganda – the second of three African countries the pope will visit on his Africa tour – but under a colonial-era penal code homosexual acts remain illegal.

The Pope greeted President Uhuru Kenyatta, government leaders and members of the diplomatic corps who received him at Nairobi’s State House.

As a whole, Catholics in Africa are growing in terms of numbers, and the Church had an estimated 200 million adherents in 2012 – though that number is expected to reach half a billion in 2050.

Sticking to his line of preaching a simple and humble lifestyle, the pope rode in a gray Honda, instead of an official limousine.

Following the usual practice for a traveling Pontiff, Pope Francis sent telegrams of greeting to the heads of state of each of the countries his plane passed over on the route to Kenya: Italy, Greece, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Kenya itself. Earlier this year, 148 people were killed when al-Shabab attacked a university in Garissa, while in 2013 militants at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi gunned down at least 67 people.

“There’s corruption in the country, and if you talk to many people they will say corruption in Kenya is at a critical level”.

“We have a responsibility to pass on the beauty of nature in its integrity to the future generations”.

Pope Francis has landed in Kenya on a trip aimed at pushing the key themes of his papacy but which is also fraught with security concerns.

Potentially the most hazardous stop may be the third in the Central African Republic.

“Even now”, he said on Wednesday afternoon, “they still don’t believe the pope’s coming”.