Abstract:
Poverty and attempts to alleviate it is an issue that has continued to generate interest
of national governments and international agencies and mostly in most developing
countries. The Christian Church, in spite of its central mandate being spiritual
evangelism has continued to participate in the fight against poverty to accomplish
Jesus Christ's mission to whole-heartedly serve and minister to all; both rich and poor
of the World. This paper evaluates the mandate of the Christian Church in poverty
~ alleviation with reference to the role Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) plays in
helping to alleviate poverty amongst its faithful. Specifically, the paper discusses the
source of action by the church and the type and nature of development programmes
carried out by the ACK in Maseno and Winam Divisions to establish the influence of
the development programmes on the people. The Church, due to its proximity to the
poor, remains one of the major stakeholders of poverty alleviation in rural areas.
Hence, the paper makes the basic assumption that the majority of living poor, mostly
in rural areas are not only poor but also profess the Christian faith as adherents of the
ACK. The paper was guided by the Christian theory of human development which has
two basic goals: to achieve life everlasting in the company of God
