The government will provide security to the peace caravan of more than 2,000 Mombasa Catholic diocese faithful who will travel to Nairobi for the historic Pope’s visit, County Commissioner Nelson Marwa has said. Addressing the press after a closed-door meeting with a delegation from the diocese, led by Vica General Wilbard Lagho yesterday, Marwa said a team of security officers will accompany the faithful for their trip to and from Nairobi.
“We are prepared to secure the faithful who will be travelling for the Pope’s visit…all the buses that will transport the faithful will be secured,” said Marwa. Lagho said the peace caravan will conduct roadshows and interfaith meetings in Mombasa, Voi and Makindu on their way to Nairobi.
“The interfaith prayer meetings and roadshows are supposed to bring people together in spite of our religious and ethnic differences. This is why we are calling it a peace caravan because it’s all about promoting peace…we have committees and sub-committees who will be in charge of coordination of transport, communications and other logistics,” said Father Lagho, adding that there is also a special committee in charge of first aid and comprises medics, paramedics and an ambulance to handle any emergencies.
He said for the past month, the diocese has been conducting registrations for those who will participate in the peace caravan, adding that so far 2,051 people have registered from Mombasa, Taita Taveta, Kwale and Kilifi counties.
“The registration is still ongoing and we expect the number to increase. This is a big number and for the sake of making things simpler for us, we advise faithful in the caravan to carry packed meals.
In this regard, we appeal to organiseations willing to support us to come on board. We will be in need of buses, meals and roadshow trucks for the trip,” said Lagho. He also appealed to the media to join the caravan and help to give positive publicity about Kenya during the Pope visit.
“It is understood that whenever Pope visits a country, it becomes the centre of focus for the whole world and we all know there has been so much of negative publicity about Kenya. We will require local media to stand firm and tell a positive narrative about Kenya during this time,” said Lagho.
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