New military diocese for Kenya: CEN 11.06.09 p 5.

First published in The Church of England Newspaper. The Anglican Church of Kenya has created its 31st diocese, raising its Chaplaincy to the Armed Forces to the status of a “Military Episcopate”. At a service at St Paul’s Garrison Church at the Kahawa army barracks outside Nairobi, the Protestant Suffragan Bishop for the Armed Forces, Colonel the Rt Rev Peter Wanyonyi Simiyu was enthroned as Bishop-in-Ordinary for the Armed Forces.

A former British Army Garrison chapel, St Paul’s will serve as the pro-Cathedral of the new diocese, the ACK reports.

In 2007 Bishop Simiyu was appointed the first Protestant suffragan bishop to the armed forces. Born in 1956 in the Bungoma District, Bishop Simiyu was ordained in 1978 in the Diocese of Butere and served as a parish priest before being commissioned as an army chaplain in 1985. His duty stations have included assignments as garrison chaplain at the Isiolo Barracks, Kenyatta Barracks, Lanet Barracks and Moi Barracks. In 2000, he served with the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone, and in 2004 was appointed Principal Chaplain (Protestant) to the Army.