While the Rwandan government has closed churches and prayer groups, the process of checking whether churches meet the requirements, including hygiene measures.It is a program that began on July 28 (7) led by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), in collaboration with the Rwanda National police ( RNP), and the Ministry of Local Government.
Although there are religions and churches that have been closed down for not meeting the requirements. There are others that have continued to operate without meeting the requirements.In this regard, there are some churches that operate under the guise of helping the needy but if you look closely you will find that they are churches hidden under the umbrella of helping.
One of these churches we visited is DESTINY BUILDERS which operates in Rwezamenyo sector, Nyarugenge District in a place known as ‘Kwa Gisimba‘. Some residents there say that it does not meet the requirements based on other churches that have been closed.
Sibomana David (name changed) says that it is not right to close some churches while leaving others open, all of which do not meet the requirements. “We request that Destiny Rebuilders be visited by RGB to see if it meets the requirements like other religions and congregations.”
On the side of Destiny Rebuilders Church, Manzi Valens Karekezi, the leader of this church, says that they do not work as a church but rather as a charitable and charitable organization.
President Paul Kagame said that the problem of the number of religions and churches in Rwanda has caused chaos and misleading practices, and he called for the imposition of a tax on donations and other income from their owners to combat it.
President Kagame said that some religious leaders who have become ‘scammers’ who rob Rwandans of their property should be taken to task, and he asked lawmakers to look into ways to solve this problem.
He said that the issue of the closure of churches that were in chaos and did not meet the requirements is a known one and should be taken to task like everything else.
He said, “These people who are making a fuss and going through these religious institutions, in churches, in religions, in what ways, they rob people of their property and take their property, will lead us to impose a tax. A person should pay taxes on what he earned, whether he earned it through lies, if he lied to people and took their property, before the court decides whether what he did was false or what, let’s first impose a tax.”
