"We need to be honest, these children who are raised by single mothers, where are their fathers? And why do we want to pretend that this is not a problem. As much as we are talking about our church and culture, we need to go back to the drawing board to discuss this issue and come up with a solution."

But speaking to reporters outside St Crispin's Church in Bungoma town, Archbishop Jackson rejected the call, saying that the Church would not permit marriages involving multiple partners.

"The church is very clear through the teachings of the Bible especially the New Testament that one man and one woman make a family," he said. "We want to make it clear from the perspective that as a church, a family is one wife and one husband joined together to form a couple and form a family."

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Kenya, Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit, has said the Church would resist moves to promote polygamy in the country. The subject hit the headlines in Kenya after MP Gathoni Wamuchomba called for men to marry several women to ensure children in single-parent families had a father-figure. "We give birth to these children, and we do not want to own up to them," she is reported as saying. "If you are a man from the Kikuyu community, and you can sustain five wives, have them; and if you are a man and you are in a position to bring up [many children], do it.

"We need to be honest, these children who are raised by single mothers, where are their fathers? And why do we want to pretend that this is not a problem. As much as we are talking about our church and culture, we need to go back to the drawing board to discuss this issue and come up with a solution."

But speaking to reporters outside St Crispin's Church in Bungoma town, Archbishop Jackson rejected the call, saying that the Church would not permit marriages involving multiple partners.

"The church is very clear through the teachings of the Bible especially the New Testament that one man and one woman make a family," he said. "We want to make it clear from the perspective that as a church, a family is one wife and one husband joined together to form a couple and form a family."

VOL FOOTNOTE. It was only a few short years ago when Episcopal bishops accused African primates of allowing and condoning polygamy, while they promoted homosexuality as a tradeoff. It was a lie of course. Former Rwanda archbishop Emmanuel Kolini blasted accusations that African Anglican provinces condoned polygamy and called an American priest "a liar" for saying so on National Public Radio. "There are no bishops practicing polygamy in Africa that I know of, and if there was one I will never have communion with him. Polygamy is a form of racism. It is a sin," he said. The province of Nigeria has also banned polygamy among members of the church. The ban was handed down by the former Archbishop Peter Akinola.