Newly elected Pope Leo XIV (centre) pictured with other Catholic church leaders during his past visit to Kenya as a cardinal in December 2024.
When Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost visited Kenya in December 2024, no one he met could have guessed they were shaking hands with the next Pope.
And when on Thursday he was elected the 267th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, making history as the first American to hold the position, Augustinian missionaries in Kenya, who spent time with him during that visit, looked back on it not as a coincidence, but as something deeply divine.
“The photos are now more than souvenirs to me,” said Rev Father Peter John Imaji, the Director of Formation Order of Saint Augustine (OSA). “I will now look at them and feel a flood of emotions. They hold a piece of history.”
The Augustinian missionary’s formation in Nairobi’s Karen has 19 students and four presiding priests.
The man who would be Pope Leo XIV established the entire premises for the formation in Nairobi more than two decades ago. The missionaries, who spoke to the Nation on Friday, say he wanted people to be united.
“In the Augustinian logo, we have the heart and heart on it, which is a symbol of love for the scripture. When he came here, he was talking about love for the scripture. To me, it resonates because that is our spirituality. He is going to bring about the love for the love of God,” said Father Imaji.
Father Peter Imaji during an interview at St. Augustine's Friary, Karen in Nairobi on May 9, 2025. He met the newly elected Pope Leo XIV when he visited Kenya in December 2024.
As a Cardinal, Pope Leo XIV visited Kenya for the consecration and dedication of the Marian Grotto and the Church of the Mother of Good Counsel Chapel at the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) mission in Nairobi’s Karen suburb.
“Mother of Good Counsel Chapel solemnly dedicated by His Eminence Prevost Cardinal Robert Francis OSA on the 10th day of December 2024 during the priorate of Most Reverent Alejandro Moral Anton OSA,” reads the plaque on the door of the chapel he consecrated.
"It was a whole ritual and most of us had never witnessed a ritual like that before, having been priests for many years,'' recalls Father James Wambugu.
During the solemn sermon, the American Cardinal emphasised the need for peace.
Low-key visit
He arrived on December 9 and went straight to Baba Dogo, an informal settlement within Nairobi, where he interacted with residents “because he identifies with the lowly,” said Father James Wambugu.
Father James Wambugu during an interview at St. Augustine's Friary, Karen in Nairobi on May 9, 2025. He met the newly elected Pope Leo XIV when he visited Kenya in December 2024.
At the time, he was the Cardinal of OSA. He had previously visited in 2011 as the Prior General.
As a person, he was humble, said a missionary, who prefers to be referred to as Brother Fred, as he recalled his interaction with him.
He took the name Pope Leo XIV, and used his first words from a Vatican balcony to speak of peace in the world and “a united church, always seeking peace and justice.”
As the incoming Pope, he will soon confront difficult decisions affecting the direction of the church and the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.
Elevated to Pope
In a not-so-weathered photograph taken in Nairobi last year, a modest-looking priest in white robes stands quietly among a group of Augustinian missionaries.
Pope Leo XIV (center) during his past visit to Kenya as a cardinal in December 2024.
His presence was gentle. His words, soft.
At the time, he was just Cardinal Robert, fondly referred to as Bob by those close to him — and just another visiting clergyman from Europe, exchanging smiles with seminarians.
Today, that same man is Pope Leo XIV — head of the global Roman Catholic Church.
For the missionaries who hosted him, the news came not just as a surprise, but as a spiritual thunderclap.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States, appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, May 8, 2025.
“I gasped,” said Father Wambugu. “I didn’t just see a Pope on my screen last night. I saw a brother we welcomed, prayed with, and walked beside under the Kenyan sun. And, I had to keep calm until the formal communique was done.”
While the consecration and dedication of St Augustine’s Friary Chapel and blessing of Marian Grotto and adoration by the newly elected Pope Leo XIV will be a memorable event to many Catholics and Kenyans, Fr Wambugu takes it as a special moment and occasion, having interacted one-on-one with Pope Leo XIV.
Fr Wambugu describes Pope Leo XIV as a person who advocates for social justice for both the marginalised, poor and the rich.
Pope Leo XIV is also an advocate of peace, he said.
Now, with the white smoke still clearing over St Peter’s Square, the gravity of that moment is beginning to settle on the missionaries left behind in Kenya.
The photographs — now making rounds in Catholic circles across Kenya — have become more than just a keepsake, said Father Wambugu. It is a symbol. A reminder that greatness often comes cloaked in humility. That history is not always written in cathedrals but in small chapels, dirt roads, and quiet encounters.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, May 8, 2025.
For many in the Kenyan Church, the story of Pope Leo’s visit feels prophetic.
“Perhaps God was writing a story we didn’t yet understand,” added Father James. “When a future Pope walked our streets, saw our struggles, and worshipped beside us.”
As the new Pope begins his new chapter in Rome, far from the dusty roads of Kenya, one thing is clear: a piece of his papacy was shaped here, in the warmth of a Kenyan sunrise, among those who loved him before the world crowned him.
Additional reporting by Nicholas Njoroge and Cynthia Makena
