Pope Francis has arrived in Kenya for a three-nation African tour – his first to the continent as pontiff.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and ululating crowds welcomed him at the airport in the capital, Nairobi.
The pope called for peace, saying conflict and terrorism “feed on fear, mistrust, and the despair born of poverty and frustration”.
A leading Muslim cleric in Kenya welcomed the visit, saying it gave hope to the “downtrodden in the slums”.
An atheist group said it would challenge in court a government decision to declare Thursday a holiday in honour of the pontiff.
Pope Francis’s five-day visit will also see him go to Uganda and Central African Republic, which has been hit by Christian-Muslim conflict.
Kenya’s government has said that up to 10,000 police officers may be deployed during the visit.
Militant Islamists have carried out a spate of attacks in Kenya – including the 2013 siege at Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre, which left at
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