Our History

Our Beginnings

In the late 1950s, a group of the Goan community in South B began meeting for Mass at the Catholic Primary School, then run by the Sisters of Mercy. Other Kenyan Catholics gradually joined them, and by 1964 their numbers were enough to justify the founding of a parish by the Holy Ghost Fathers. The foundation stone for Our Lady Queen of Peace was blessed and laid in March 1965 by the late Archbishop McCarthy, and Fr. C. Kelly, CSSp became the parish's first Parish Priest.

The young parish covered a wide area, spanning South B, South C, and Nairobi West. Mass was celebrated only in English until 1981, when Kiswahili Masses were introduced at OLQP, Wilson Airport, and Mater Misericordiae.

Growth Under the Missionaries of Africa

In 1979, Fr. Ben Coutier of the Missionaries of Africa took over from Fr. C. Kelly, after a brief stay at Eastleigh Parish. He was later joined by Fr. Jean-Paul St. Martin, and then Fr. Manuel Gordejuela in 1980.

Catholic teachers in the surrounding schools organized catechism, while several prayer groups meeting in members' homes would later grow into today's Small Christian Communities. During the Moi era, one such prayer group was arrested, and Fr. Manuel had to secure their release; afterward, the groups were advised to pray in the Church Hall while the parish worked to secure prayer houses for them in the neighborhood. By 1982, a multipurpose hall had been built, offering training in hairdressing, knitting, and basket weaving.

In 1997, a Kes. 7 million gift from Fr. Hubert's mother, then believed to be over 90 years old, funded the building of St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in South C, later blessed by Bishop Anthony Ireri Mukobo and handed over to the Conventual Franciscan Friars. Around the same time, our outstation of St. Margaret was built.

The Fire and Rebuilding

Between November and December 2000, Nairobi and South B in particular experienced significant unrest. A land dispute near a nearby mosque turned violent, and the following day groups of youth stormed into OLQP and petrol-bombed it, reducing the church to rubble.

Amid the anguish that followed, Fr. George Smith, the Parish Priest at the time, appealed for calm and asked the Catholic youth not to seek revenge — and by the grace of God, peace was restored. The tragedy drew an outpouring of support from Catholic faithful across the country, culminating in numerous harambees. The new church, of which the parish is justly proud, was completed at a cost of around Kshs. 65 million, with even the main contractor donating free transport for construction materials.

The new church was officially consecrated in April 2003 by the then Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya, His Excellency Giovanni Tonnucci. Its exterior takes the shape of a dove, a sign of the Catholic Church's embrace of peace, while its interior forms the shape of a heart — a lasting reminder of how delicate peace is, and how it must flow from within to be lived out in our community. To this day, the parish continues to organize inter-denominational prayers to foster that peace among the different groups in our society.