My analysis
Paul Kagame’s crack down on churches in Rwanda has nothing to do with promoting health standards and protecting the poor from exploitation and extortion. It has everything to do with eradicating all arenas that create political dissent against the Kigali dictatorship. Kagame has created a dystopia in Rwanda that controls and oppresses people through threats and intimidation.
Kagame has cemented political apathy in Rwanda by creating threatened citizens. These citizens are so afraid of death, imprisonment and torture that all they do is simply to keep quiet and remain docile about politics. Kagame’s major target is born again churches and mosques which he regards as fundamentalist institutions that can mobilise people to overthrow the Kigali dictatorship.
Kagame is being used by Vatican to stop the Pentecostal revival in Africa. The Vatican hopes that many governments elsewhere in the world will copy Kagame’s strategy of silencing Pentecostals under the pretext of lacking qualifications and standards. It must be noted that no catholic church has been closed because Kagame is himself a staunch catholic.
Therefore the breakdown of places of worship in Rwanda is a catholic inquisition strategy where Kagame is simply a pawn. The million dollar question is, If Rwanda is an economic model, how comes there are no Africans dyeing to migrate to Rwanda? If Kagame does not repent he will follow in the footsteps of Gadaffi. The most high himself will judge and punish him as the whole world watches in astonishment. Like Lucifer Kagame will be brought down to the ground.
Kagame is such a spiritual coward. He is now blocking people from crying out to God due to the evils meted against them by Kagame and his murderous cabal. The right to freedom of worship is a very sensitive right. You do not need to break down churches. In order to fight con men in church we ought to use the laws in the penal code. The penal code has laws against fraud, theft and extortion. The state itself has an intelligence arm that personally apprehend culprits. Therefore the act of breaking down churches in Rwanda is one of the most barbaric and primitive practice which was only heard of in the medieval era of catholic dictatorship.
FIRST READ:
When Rwandan Refugees Die like rats amidst Global silence: Rwanda Journalist Shot in Kampala
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2011/12/when-rwandan-refugees-die-like-rats.html
From the lion’s teeth to the lion’s den : Karegeya’s daughter caught in Rwanda-Uganda passport fix
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2012/07/from-lions-teeth-to-lions-den-karegeyas.html
Dictator Paul Kagame wages war against God: Kagame closes over 6000 Pentecostal churches, Says Pastors Must Be Holders Of Degree In Theology Before They Can Practice : Rwanda does not need many churches: How comes no catholic church was closed???
https://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2018/04/dictator-paul-kagame-wages-war-against.html
Rwanda Explains Why It Closed Thousands of Churches. Again
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2024/08/rwanda-closed-churches-africa/
The East African nation has shuttered 9,800 “prayer houses” because it wants safe buildings and well-trained pastors. Is that too much to ask?
Rwanda has shut down almost 10,000 places of worship in the past two months, and now its president has proposed making churches pay taxes on their income.
The country’s crackdown on houses of worship comes as part of an ongoing push to protect Rwandans from church corruption and fraud and to ensure that their buildings meet certain physical standards.
Just weeks after winning his fourth term, President Paul Kagame condemned “mushrooming churches” that “squeeze even the last penny from poor Rwandans.”
“These unscrupulous people who use religion and churches to manipulate and fleece people of their money and other things will force us to introduce a tax,” he said in his first remarks since taking his oath of office on August 11.
The Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), which oversees the country’s places of worship, found that thousands of churches—many of them rural, Pentecostal congregations—failed to meet legal requirements around theological education, building codes, and sanitation regulations.
The RGB delineates between churches, which are officially registered with the government, and “prayer houses,” or places where Christians worship and which exist under churches.
In a statement to CT, the RGB confirmed that it had inspected 14,000 prayer houses in July and closed 70 percent of them “for non-compliance with established regulations including registration, building codes, safety, hygiene/sanitation, and financial or other exploitation of followers.”
“It should be noted that the closure of a prayer house does not necessarily entail the closure of the church the prayer house is affiliated with,” the statement added.
The board began shutting down houses of worship in July and stated that “relevant authorities will continue to collaborate with religious leaders” to ensure that the legal standards, ranging from degree requirements to garbage cans and parking lots, are met. Places of worship that have been closed can reopen if they demonstrate that the violations have been fixed.
This isn’t the first time Rwanda has taken action against churches for being out of compliance with government regulations. The country closed more than 7,000 churches in 2018 over health, safety, and noise issues. That year, it added further regulations, including banning church leaders from encouraging long fasts and requiring certain financial disclosures from churches and prayer houses.
It also introduced a requirement that each church must have a legal representative who holds a theology degree. Churches had five years, until September 2023, to comply with the law, and after a grace period, the RGB began enforcing the new standard.
Churches registering with the government must submit an organizational chart. Leaders in national positions, as well as those who supervise groups of local churches or regional parishes, must have a university degree with a certificate in theology or a theology degree, according to the board’s former CEO, Usta Kaitesi. (Kaitesi recently left after five years as the RGB’s leader and was replaced on August 16 by Doris Uwicyeza Picard, who formerly worked at the Ministry of Justice.)
Kaitesi emphasized that the education requirement does not apply directly to the leader of each church—a demand that would make it cost-prohibitive for most religious organizations.
“This structure allows the parish pastor to be accountable for what happens at the local church level,” Kaitesi told CT in March. “It doesn’t take our responsibility from the local church pastor, but you want them to know that if this is the doctrine of the church, and the church has told us this is the doctrine, they should have somebody with the capacity for supervising the implementation of the doctrine.”
Kaitesi believes that national umbrella groups—the Protestant Council of Rwanda, the Evangelical Alliance of Rwanda, the Forum of Born Again Churches for Rwanda, and Association of Pentecostal Churches of Rwanda—have a critical role to play in implementation.
“We encourage [all church legal entities] to belong to an umbrella, because we believe that umbrellas can do a lot of self-regulation, more than us doing too much regulation,” she said.
The government’s legal standards have largely worked well for historic denominations.
“What was introduced—not today but five years ago—is good for the church. The government gave us five years to comply and kept giving us reminders. That ended last year in September,” Anglican Archbishop Laurent Mbanda of Rwanda told Religion News Service. “I think this was enough time to comply. We need to look at this from a positive side.”
It’s been much tougher for independent churches and congregations founded by a single person, many of which are smaller Pentecostal churches in rural areas.
Traditionally, Pentecostals and independent charismatic churches have said the Holy Spirit and the Bible equip them fully for ministry and that formal training is unnecessary, according to Reuben van Rensburg, a project manager with Re-Forma, a South African-based ministry that educates and trains church leaders.
These pastors “would have to have the right entry requirements if they were going to study at a tertiary institution,” he said. “They would have to pay for it, which most of them can’t, and they would have to leave their ministry or their family for an extended period of time, which they’re not willing to do.”
The legal crackdown has also spurred efforts to make theological education more accessible. The RGB announced a collaboration with Re-Forma last year, agreeing to accept the ministry’s certification as evidence that a pastor has obtained suitable theological training.
After a meeting in June, 31 denominations in Rwanda committed to participating in Re-Forma’s training programs, and RGB officials agreed to honor Re-Forma certification. With the change in RGB leadership, however, Re-Forma is uncertain whether this agreement will be upheld.
Many churches that meet the theological requirements have found it challenging to fulfill all the building-related requirements, which include regulations about the distance of toilets from the church entrance, paved access roads, and painted and plastered inside walls and ceilings. When the pandemic hit and the government closed all churches, it required them to install handwashing stations before reopening.
One Kigali church was closed at the end of July because it lacked a fire extinguisher, two garbage bins, and a lightning protector. The pastor, who noted that his congregation was previously closed for four months in 2018 because it was not soundproof, said they have since addressed the government’s most recent concerns. However, they are currently meeting only on Zoom and don’t have a sense of when the government will allow them to reopen.
Other churches were closed because they were not built on the minimum area of land required or lacked a proper waste management system, security cameras, or painted walls, said one denominational leader who asked not to be named for security reasons.
Fulfilling these requirements can seem arbitrary and spurious to some. In addition to the parking requirements, the government also requires greenery.
“Remember, we are in the dry season,” the denomination leader said. “Even if you plant the greening, it will not grow the same day.”
The government wants churches with air conditioning, high-quality sound systems, and accommodations for people with disabilities, seemingly on a par with the US and Canada, he said. Maybe that’s possible for Anglican, Presbyterian, and Catholic churches, which have operated in the country for more than a century and have their own revenue-generating projects, or for those with connections to outside funders like World Vision, which has implemented handwashing stations at some churches.
But for churches fully dependent on tithes, “You can’t expect it to be done in Africa in a short period,” he said.
The leader’s denomination is currently asking the churches that have not been closed to contribute to a fund to help reopen the closed places of worship. It is reaching out to contacts who can help them make their case to the government.
“We need serious prayers. It’s a movement that intends to limit the freedom of worship. And you know the consequences—if people don’t go to church, they will do other things,” he said.
Though many find the government oversight overwhelming, some Christians still see it as important.
“Churches are growing rapidly in many countries and such growth should not be at the expense of the safety of the congregants,” said Wissam al-Saliby, the president of the religious freedom advocacy group 21Wilberforce. “At the same time, the Rwandan government needs to make available a pathway for closed churches to meet requirements and to re-open. The possibility of redress and appealing closure decisions helps guarantee the right to freedom of religion or belief.”
Al-Saliby said he felt that the church leadership educational requirements were “disproportionate to the legitimate objectives the government is seeking.”
But he acknowledged the need for the Rwandan church to scale up and improve leadership formation. “Evangelicals grow through house churches and organic community efforts,” he said. “More often than not, theological education for church leaders follows growth rather than precedes it.”
Harvesters Church in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, was shut down on August 4 because the government was missing verification that its pastor had finished his bachelor’s degree in theology and leadership.
The pastor, Fred Kayitare, is optimistic that his congregation of around 500 will soon reopen and said he “totally agreed” with the theology training requirements. He described them as “for the goodness of the congregation.”
“I am the living example. I planted a church before I attended theological college. I can witness the change and transformation I acquired from school,” he said. “I’m another person now. And everyone at our church who knew me before can witness that. I even sent four other ministers from our church to the Bible college. We’re now five theology graduates from the same church.”
President Kagame: Catholic Church a key partner in unity, devt
January 27, 2019
President Paul Kagame on Sunday joined thousands of Catholics from across the country and beyond to witness the installation of Antoine Kambanda, the new Archbishop of the Kigali Archdiocese.
Kambanda replaces Thadée Ntihinyurwa, who is retiring at the age of 76 after leading the Church since the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
Kambanda is Kigali’s third archbishop and previously served as bishop of Kibungo Diocese for five years.
Kagame congratulated both Kambanda, who is now the head of the Catholic Church in the country, and his predecessor, Ntihinyurwa.
“The trust placed in you (Kambanda) by the Holy Father, reflects the esteem of the parishioners that you serve. We wish you the best, and will help you in any way we can to fulfill these new responsibilities,” he said.
“I also thank Archbishop Ntihinyurwa for his steady leadership over more than twenty years, during a very critical period in our country’s transformation,” he added.
Kagame highlighted that Rwanda recognises the value of the Catholic Church’s partnership with citizens, particularly in the provision of education and health services to the local population, regardless of their religious affiliation.
The installation comes nearly two years after the Head of State paid a visit to Pope Francis in Vatican.
During this visit, Kagame said, Pope Francis made a humble gesture, calling on God to forgive members of the Catholic Church, for the failure of some members of the clergy in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
“This was a major milestone, which we are all called upon to improve, by working together as religious institutions and government in a positive way, based not on the past, but on the future we want,” he noted.
Kagame called on the congregants to put the Pope’s teaching into practice, reiterating that the Government wants the Church to be a full partner in building the nation, and the foundation of unity and reconciliation upon which it is based.
Indeed, Kambanda said, the President’s visit to Vatican was yet another reflection and demonstration of the Government’s efforts toward taking the existing relationship to another level.
“I, therefore, want to extend my sincere gratitude to President Kagame for his continued support and willingness to strengthen the state’s relationship with the Catholic Church,” he said.
The Head of State applauded the co-existence among the various churches and faiths, adding that the Government does not take it for granted.
In particular, the President commended the work of the Rwanda Inter-Faith Council, co-chaired by Archbishop Kambanda and Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.
“This important initiative helps to cement national cohesion, while providing support and context to our efforts to raise the standards of faith-based organisations in our country,” he said, adding that this also leaves no room for those who use religion for ill intentions.
The Pope’s special representative at the installation also announced that Archbishop Kambanda will represent the Pope in Kibungo Diocese (Apostolic administration).
Kambanda emphasised that one of his main areas of focus would be on the family unit during his time as archbishop, emphasising that family is the foundation of a child’s life.
“We want to start with the family unit, because we believe the home serves as a place where a child is first instilled with Christian values, inevitably steering them in the right direction. Investing in family promotion and development is critical and is a priority,” he said.
The new archbishop pledged to work with the Government towards achieving this particular target and making sure that the country raises a generation of people that will significantly contribute to its transformation.
During his tenure, Kambanda committed to building a new Cathedral in Kigali, to which Kagame pledged his support, not just in Kigali but also beyond.
Kambanda is expected to oversee about 10 dioceses spread across the country.
Rwandan president praises Catholic Church for building country
January 31st, 2019
Rwandan President Paul Kagame has commended the role of the Catholic Church in the country’s transformation following the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
"We recognize the value of the Catholic Church’s partnership with Rwandans, particularly in the provision of education and health services to our population, regardless of their religious affiliation,” Kagame said as he recently attended the installation of the new archbishop of Kigali Archdiocese.
“During my visit to the Vatican, the Holy Father made a humble gesture, calling on God to forgive the Church as a whole, for the Church’s failure in our tragic history. This was a major milestone, which we are all called upon to perfect, by working together as religious institutions and government in a positive way, based not on the past, but on the future we want,” the president said, according to africanews.com.
“Let us put the pope’s teaching into practice, and most importantly, into the hearts of the clergy and the faithful. We want the Church to be a full partner in building this nation, and the foundation of unity and reconciliation upon which it is based" Kagame said.
The president was on Jan. 27 attending the installation of Archbishop Antoine Kambanda, former bishop of Kibungo who Pope Francis past November named to replace 76-year old Archbishop Thaddée Ntihinyurwa of Kagali.
Archbishop Ntihinyurwa retired after leading the Rwandan Church since the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
Kagame congratulated both Archbishop Kambanda, who is now the head of the Catholic Church in the country, and his predecessor, Archbishop Ntihinyurwa.
“The trust placed in you (Kambanda) by the Holy Father, reflects the esteem of the parishioners that you serve. We wish you the best, and will help you in any way we can to fulfill these new responsibilities,” the president said, according to The New Times.
Kambanda is Kigali’s third archbishop.
“I also thank Archbishop Ntihinyurwa for his steady leadership over more than twenty years, during a very critical period in our country’s transformation,” Kagame said.
The president also commended the work of the Rwanda Inter-Faith Council, co-chaired by Archbishop Kambanda and Archbishop Laurent Mbanda, of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.
“This important initiative helps to cement national cohesion, while providing support and context to our efforts to raise the standards of faith-based organisations in our country,” he said, adding that this also leaves no room for those who use religion for ill intentions, The New Times reported.
Archbishop Kambanda said that one of his main areas of focus as head of Kigali Archdiocese would be on the family.
“We want to start with the family unit because we believe the home serves as a place where a child is first instilled with Christian values, inevitably steering them in the right direction. Investing in family promotion and development is critical and is a priority,” he said.
The new archbishop also pledged to work with the government towards ensuring that the country raises a generation of people that will significantly contribute to its transformation.
Over 51 percent of the Rwanda’s 12.2 million people are Catholics. The Catholic Church in Rwanda has 146 parishes, nine dioceses, and one archdiocese.
It also runs 10 hospitals and 109 health centers co-owned with the government as well as 1,463 primary and secondary schools and five higher learning institutions.
Commends partnership with govt particularly in the provision of education and health services