‘We are here because we love you’: Church leaders support education in Kenya

‘We are very happy to be here,’ says General Authority Seventy about expanding humanitarian efforts

13 Aug 2026, 12:00 p.m. MDT

Elder Paul B. Pieper, a General Authority Seventy and President of the Church’s Africa Central Area (left), and Lamu County Governor Issa Abdalla Timamy (right) walk through classrooms with Holy Angel Primary School Headmaster Francis Njoka during a visit to Lamu County, Kenya, on July 15, 2026. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Aimee Cobabe is a reporter for Church News.

Local leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visited schools, hospitals and community projects in Kenya’s Lamu County in July 2026 to look at how the Church can collaborate on future projects to support the community.

Elder Paul B. Pieper, a General Authority Seventy and President of the Church’s Africa Central Area, visited Lamu County, Kenya, July 14-15, 2026, to discuss opportunities for collaboration with Lamu County Gov. Issa Abdalla Timamy.

“The whole purpose [of the visit] was that I wanted [the Church] to have a feel of Lamu,” Governor Timamy said. “We are hoping that they will come in and assist us. We are good partners. We don’t just sit and let our partners do everything. We also come in a strong way.”

The visit reflected the teaching of Jesus Christ to “love one another” and serve those in need, according to a news release from the Church’s Africa Newsroom website.

Lamu County Governor Issa Abdalla Timamy introduces Elder Paul B. Pieper, a General Authority Seventy and President of the Church’s Africa Central Area, and Elder Johnny O. Baddoo, an Area Seventy, to locals in Kiangwe Village in Lamu County, Kenya, on July 15, 2026. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints strives to follow the Savior’s two great commandments to love God and to love one another.

“We are here because we love you,” Elder Pieper shared at Holy Angel Primary School in Lamu, Kenya. “Not just us, but thousands of people behind us, and they want to help too. We want you to study, so you can learn and grow and be strong.”

In addition to visiting the Holy Angel Primary School, Elder Pieper, Elder Johnny O. Baddoo — an Area Seventy — and other Church leaders visited King Fahd Lamu County Referral Hospital, Mokowe Sub County Hospital, Hongwe School for the Disabled, Ocean View Primary School, Sinambio Dispensary and Kiangwe Village.

“Thank you for being here and [for] all that you do,” Elder Pieper said during a visit with staff at the Sinambio Dispensary. “Even though the Church has been in Kenya now since the 1980s, we have not been in Lamu. So, we are very happy to be here.”

Elder Paul B. Pieper, a General Authority Seventy and President of the Church’s Africa Central Area (right), speaks to students and teachers at the Holy Angel Primary School in Lamu County, Kenya, on July 14, 2026. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Recent humanitarian efforts in Kenya

Earlier this year, the Church provided emergency relief to thousands of vulnerable families in a drought-stricken area of Kenya.

Church representatives and teams from NAMLEF brought food and water to nomadic pastoralist communities in isolated sublocations of northeast Kenya at the end of May — distributing 250 tons of food rations to 3,011 households spread across 24 villages as well as providing clean water to 16 locations, directly serving 2,142 households, as reported by the Church’s Africa Newsroom.

In May, the Church also announced the donation of $25 million to a UNICEF effort that provides nutrition to millions of children and mothers around the world, including those in Kenya.