Anglican Church of Kenya

The Anglican Church of Kenya is a province of the Anglican Communion, and is composed of 33 dioceses. The current Primate and Archbishop of Kenya is Jackson Ole Sapit.

The church became part of the Province of East Africa in 1960, but Kenya and Tanzania were divided into separate provinces in 1970.

The Anglican Church of Kenya performs a range of functions, including seeking to address major areas of societal concern. These are development, communication, justice, peace and reconciliation. The Church also provides education as a pathway to human development.

Anglican Overseas Aid has had a relationship with the Mt Kenya West Diocese since 1996, when Australian Alf Chipman was the Bishop.

Since 2000, we have been supporting the Anglican Church of Kenya in its efforts to improve access to health for women and children, and addressing the links between poverty and violence against women and children.

We work with the Anglican Church of Kenya on the Imarisha Kwa Kuzingatia Haki Na Usawa project.

This project follows on from the Biotisho – health access for Maasai project, and is implemented in Nyeri County in the Diocese of Mount Kenya West. The project seeks to build safer communities by addressing the link between poverty and violence against women and children. The Anglican Church of Kenya aims to raise community awareness about the realities of domestic violence, and how to support survivors.

Training and education about violence and child protection is provided to a range of groups, including schools, community leaders, through health centres and for government workers.

The project has also launched a program to train clergy in the roles they can play in reducing gender-based violence and protecting children. Community leaders who have been identified by the government are also being trained to check on the security of women as well as their social welfare needs. On top of that, children are being protected in terms of their vulnerability to abuse, neglect and child labour.

Through this project, the Anglican Church of Kenya also aims to equip people with skills to provide for themselves and lift themselves out of poverty. It has established community gardens and is helping farmers introduce new methods to improve sustainability and productivity, particularly in a changing climate. Farmers are also learning about how to increase their income from farming.

Funding: The Imarisha project is funded by grants from the Australian Government’s aid program and donations from the Australian public.