The health sector in Kenya has grown
rapidly. The corner stone of this growth was laid by the
early Christian Missionaries who combined
Evangelization with education and health. Thishistorical
developmentled to the development and expansion of the
healthcare system in Kenya by contributing to the
building of a firm foundation upon which Kenya’s health
care stands today. TheChurch’s education-health
functional strategy cemented this milestone leading to
the growth of a vibrant health care sector in Kenya. This
has culminated in a well-coordinated ChurchGovernment partnership in the implementation of health
programs. Today Kenya is the leading country in the
East African region in the delivery of well-established
and functional health care system. The Church’s pioneer
efforts saw the healthcare in Kenya expand rapidly to all
parts of the country thus playing a significant role in the
healthcare market.The objective of this paper was
therefore to explore the Church’scontribution to the
development of healthcare sector in Kenya, to examine
the functional role of an integrated and holistic approach
to health care as a tool for the nurturing of Christian
values and faith that support spiritual growth among
people, to assess the sociological
implicationsunderpinning the entire process of growth of
health care through a Church-Government participatory
partnership approach and how this approach has
created a better society.Purposive sampling procedure
was used to select four mainstream Churches that
pioneered Evangelization in Kenya. Using qualitative
approach, secondary data was obtained through face to
face interviews with key informants from the four
mainstream Churches.Data was transcribed and
analysed qualitatively in for of themes. The findings
show that the Church played a significant role in the
development of health care in Kenya, they also show that
the use of an integrated and holistic approach to health
care was responsible for the evangelization and
treatment of many Christians in Kenya and from a
sociological perspective the findings show that the
Church plays a significant role in unifying society. The
study recommends that the Church should be supported
through government policies to continue investing in the
health care sector, other Churches in Kenya should
adopt an integrated holistic approach to health care and
the Church should strengthen its unifying role for the
sake of a stable nation. The study will benefit the
Church, policy makers and other stakeholders.
Keywords : Evangelization, Missionaries, Education, Functional, Healthcare