The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is offering a look at the interior and exterior of the Nairobi Kenya Temple, its first house of the Lord in not only in Kenya but all of East Africa.
Interior and exterior photographs and an accompanying video were released in conjunction with the new temple’s media day Monday, April 14, in Nairobi and upcoming public open house.
Media day began with an introductory news conference followed by Church leaders taking the local media representatives on tours of the new sacred structure, explaining the purpose of temples, covenants and ordinances and answering any questions.
Welcoming the media were Elder Thierry K. Mutombo, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Africa Central Area, and Elder Steven R. Bangerter, a General Authority Seventy who serves as an assistant executive director in the Church’s Temple Department.
Following Monday’s media event, invited guests — including local civic, community, educational and faith leaders — will tour the temple prior to the Thursday, April 17, start of the public open house, which will run through Saturday, May 3, excluding Sundays.
Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Nairobi Kenya Temple on Sunday, May 18, with the single dedicatory session to be broadcast to all units throughout the temple district.
The temple will be the 204th dedicated and operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the second dedicated this year, following the April 13 dedication of the Auckland New Zealand Temple.
The Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple will be dedicated the following Sunday, May 25, by Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
The interior and exterior photographs and video were first published Monday, April 14, on the Church’s Africa Newsroom.
“We stand amazed to see the construction of the house of the Lord here in Nairobi, Kenya,” said Elder Mutombo in the Africa Newsroom report.
“We are humbled to witness God’s love and tender mercies to bless the Saints and their families on both sides of the veil,” he said. “The house of the Lord is built for worship and making sacred covenants of eternal significance. I love to see the house of the Lord in this beautiful land of Kenya and the eastern Africa region.”
Design and features
The temple’s exterior is a cast-in-place concrete structure, with the stone veneer made of Portuguese Moleanos limestone. The exterior designs feature the African lily (agapanthus) — which is also predominant in the art glass and interior designs — along with circles and repeated patterns with native influences.
The blue-lavender African lily and other floral designs and patterns are found throughout the interior design, fitting since Nairobi is one of the largest exporters of flowers on the African continent.
The interior furniture is of British colonial design, the art glass includes floral patterns in a blue-and-green palate, and the walls feature neutral tones as inspired by the Kenyan savannah.
Besides carpeting and rugs, the flooring also includes porcelain Cerim Marfil stone with quartzite blue and verde imperiale accents, with the Portuguese Moleanos limestone used for stone skirtings.
Doors and millwork are made of sapele mahogany from Africa, and the patterning in the altars, pews, recommend desk and instruction room complements the art glass, floral arrangements and geometric motifs throughout the temple.
The Church and its temple in Kenya
President Thomas S. Monson announced a temple for Nairobi on April 2, 2017, during the April 2017 general conference. It was one of the last five temples he announced before his death in January 2018.
Nairobi serves as the headquarters city for the Church’s Africa Central Area, with one house of the Lord — the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple — operating within the area. The Africa Central Area was announced in 2019 and operational the following year. Church members in Kenya and surrounding African countries have been attending the Kinshasa temple since it is their nearest house of the Lord.
When the Nairobi temple is dedicated, its temple district will include the countries of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
The Sept. 11, 2021, groundbreaking of the Nairobi Kenya Temple was presided over by Elder Joseph W. Sitati, a General Authority Seventy and Africa Central Area president.
In his remarks to the congregation, Elder Sitati — a native of Kenya who converted to the Church in 1986 — said that temples “usher in peace in the world, because of the effect they have on people’s hearts. That is why this is a special day.”
The first African converts in Kenya were baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1979, supported by American United States Agency for International Development employees and families serving in Kenya who were Church members and held services in their own homes.
The Church received official recognition in 1991, and a decade later, the Nairobi Kenya Stake was organized on Sept. 9, 2001 — the first stake in Kenya.
Today, Kenya is home to more than 21,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 80 congregations, according to the Church’s statistics.
Nairobi Kenya Temple
Address: LR# 13646/4, Hinga Road, Mountain View, Nairobi, Kenya
Temple announced: April 2, 2017, by President Thomas S. Monson
Groundbreaking: Sept. 11, 2021, presided over by Elder Joseph W. Sitati, a General Authority Seventy and Africa Central Area president
Public open house: April 17 through May 3, 2025, excluding Sundays
To be dedicated: May 18, 2025, by Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Property size: 3.435 acres
Building size: approximately 19,000 square feet
Building height: 107.25 feet
CORRECTION: A photograph of the chapel of a meetinghouse adjacent to the Nairobi Kenya Temple was inadvertently included in distributed photos and mislabeled as the chapel of the temple. A part of the originally published images, the photo has since been removed here.
