We called him Bob: Kenyans recall time with a down to earth person, wise Pope Leo XIV

This photo taken and handout on May 9, 2025 by The Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV during a mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel in The Vatican. [AFP]

Sometime in December 2024, Robert Francis Prevost touched down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, for one key duty - to open St Augustine's Friary Karen, Nairobi.

But the now new Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, then cardinal, would spare his six hours, within his busy schedule of 24 hours to visit the little known Sacred Heart Baba Dogo Parish in Nairobi's Eastlands, which he helped build.