Okwudiri Straightman Nwali

Pope Francis, Arriving in Kenya, Gets Joyous Greeting

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Pope Francis arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, on Wednesday.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Pope Francis touched down in Nairobi on a sunny afternoon Wednesday, stepping into a joyous crowd of high-ranking officials in suits, bishops in black robes, and dancers wearing ceremonial colobus-monkey wigs and singing a welcome, “Karibu Kenya, Papa Francis!”

Nairobi is the first stop on the pope’s first official trip to Africa, where he hopes to spread a message of peace and reconciliation in three countries — Kenya, Uganda and the war-torn Central African Republic.

He arrived at a time when public confidence in the Kenyan government is plummeting, the economy is ailing, ethnic tensions are rising and corruption appears to have spiraled out of control. Many Kenyans are hoping that Francis can lift their spirits.

“What’s the mood?” said Bishop Anthony Muheria. “It’s electric.”

The 78-year-old pontiff’s schedule for the five-day trip is packed with meetings, red-carpet receptions, arrival ceremonies, farewell ceremonies and a Mass on Thursday for as many as one million people.

Francis’s signature humility was immediately on display: he left the airport not in a polished Mercedes or four-by-four truck, as many Kenyan officials did, but in a little Honda.

More than other recent popes, Francis is revered as a champion of the poor. As a cardinal in Buenos Aires, he rode a public bus to work and often walked in the city’s slums.

Africa is by far the world’s poorest continent, and many Kenyans are touched that Francis plans to spend Friday morning in the Kangemi slum, a huge informal settlement of flimsy metal shacks, broken dreams and open sewage trickling across the ground.

“The people here never expected this,” said the Rev. Paschal Mwijage, who leads a church in the slum. “Even now,” he said on Wednesday afternoon, “they still don’t believe the pope’s coming.” One child from the Kangemi slum said she was too excited to sleep.

Nairobi has put aside day-to-day life in expectation of the papal visit. Major roads were closed on Wednesday, and so were schools and most businesses. The government has declared an impromptu national holiday for Thursday, a day of “prayer and reflection.”

Hundreds of thousands of Catholics are streaming into the city from all corners of Kenya by bus, taxi, motorbike, even bicycle. Major hotels are fully booked, and many worshipers have opted for a cheaper option: sleeping on school floors.

The only other event here that came close to generating this level of excitement — and disruption — was President Obama’s visit in July, and hopes this time are even higher.

“The visit is a turning point in Kenya’s, and indeed Africa’s, history,” Kenya’s leading newspaper, The Daily Nation, wrote in a glowing editorial.

Its rival The Standard wrote that the pope “speaks a language that is understood the world over,” and added: “He speaks it to the rich and to the poor, the unreached, the unconverted, the marginalized.”

“Our politicians,” the paper concluded, “could learn a thing or two from him.”

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