In 1955, the diocese's first African bishops, Festo Olang' and Obadiah Kariuki, were consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, in Uganda.

[6] When President Daniel arap Moi moved to consolidate his power by suppressing free speech and limiting political opposition, Anglican leaders spoke out in defense of civil rights.

In 1990, Bishops Henry Okullu and Alexander Muge criticized the state's investigation of the murder of moderate foreign minister Robert Ouko.

Bishop Muge was killed in a suspicious automobile accident later in the year after receiving open threats from a government official.

His death spurred bishops Gitari, Okullu, and other Anglican leaders to take an even more active public role, vocally supporting the move to multi-party democracy.

[7] Gitari became archbishop in 1995 and continued the church's active engagement around civil rights, using his position to promote constitutional changes such as term limits and fairer elections.

It has been proposed since before 2005[13][14] that the quickly-increasing number of dioceses should be organised into about four or five internal ecclesiastical provinces, each headed by a metropolitan diocesan archbishop, with one primate over all.

The basic teachings of the church, or catechism, includes: The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason.

[18] In October 2009, the Kenyan Church's leadership reacted to the Vatican's proposed creation of personal ordinariates for disaffected traditionalist Anglicans by saying that although he welcomed ecumenical dialogue and shared moral theology with the Catholic Church, the current GAFCON structures already meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of conservative Anglicans in Africa.

The focus was the shared Anglican future, discussing the missionary theme, "Making Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ".

[24] The Anglican Church of Kenya was represented at GAFCON III, held in Jerusalem, on 17–22 June 2018, by a 75 members delegation, including Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit.

[26][27][28] This sparked controversy within the ACK as some clergy noted that conservatives claim "Western Kenya dioceses are liberal and are ordaining women.