President Paul Kagame. (Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)
In a move that is widely seen as a major blow to religious freedom, the government of Rwanda has closed nearly 4,000 houses of worship over the past month (July 2024) for various infractions that include operating in substandard structures, “unhygienic conditions,” not being properly soundproofed and not having formally trained preachers.
The 4,200 churches and mosques have been closed on orders from President Paul Kagame’s government in a resumption of the crackdown on religious groups that started in 2018.
According to Usta Kayitesi, the chief executive officer of the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) — the public regulator of the civil society sector — the nationwide exercise is targeting churches and other faith-based institutions that do not meet the country’s set standards.
“The government has taken a stance against proliferation in the houses of worship,” she said. “We still see cases of dilapidated [structures] and unhygienic conditions.”
A 2018 law makes theological training a minimum requirement for anyone to lead a religious organization and places of worship are required to adhere to strict construction and hygiene standards — conditions almost unattainable for many religious bodies in the East African country.
RGB’s head of communication, Jean Bosco Rushingabigwi, told the reporters that whenever their inspections — which involve the police, health departments and public works units — find an institution falling short of these requirements, it is shut down.
“The inspection focuses on verifying that denominations and prayer houses have registration documents issued by the RGB, letters of collaboration with the district when a branch is opened and that prayer houses meet legal requirements [building codes] for their location,” Rushingabigwi said.
He added that inspectors “check if the leaders hold the required academic degrees and certificates in theology at both the organizational and parish or branch levels.”
The privately owned Igihe news site, published in the local Kinyarwanda language, gave 4,223 as the total number of places of worship that had been closed by July 31, with 427 of those worshipping sites being caves and river banks. Some Rwandan Christians, like most Africans, mix their Christianity with some traditional practices.
When the new regulations were introduced in 2018, more than 9,000 places of worship were shuttered. About 6,000 of these closed permanently; others were given five years within which to regularize their operations, but most still failed to meet these “modest standards” resulting in the latest crackdown. Previous attempts by some religious leaders to defy the law resulted in some arrests.
The U.S. State Department’s report on religious rights in Rwanda has said that the country’s requirements make it more difficult for smaller, under-resourced and independent religious groups to operate, which has forced some of them to merge.
The crackdown has affected mostly small Pentecostal churches, which have been mushrooming across the African continent. Results of Rwanda’s 2022 population and housing census showed that 40% of the population is Catholic, 21% Pentecostal, 15% Protestant, 12% Seventh-Day Adventists and 4% belonging to other Christian denominations.
Only 2% of Rwandans are Muslim, which explains the fewer number of mosques caught up in the current crackdown.
No need for churches?
Kagame, who has just been sworn into office with 99% of the vote, earlier publicly questioned the need for many churches in his country.
“Seven hundred churches in Kigali? Are these boreholes that give people water?” Kagame asked when he heard that more than 700 churches had been closed down by authorities in the capital alone. “I don’t think we have as many boreholes. Do we even have as many factories? But 700 churches, which you even had to close? This has been a mess!”
But critics see the crackdown as an extension of the “authoritarianism” that Kagame is known for.
“Kagame tightly controls the media, political parties and civil society at large,” said David Himbara, a former senior advisor to Kagame who is now a Canadian citizen. “The churches constituted the last open space. Kagame knows this. The localized community of churches offered a slight space for daring to imagine and talk about change.”
However, the country’s Local Government Minister Jean Claude Musabyimana, who is enforcing the latest ban in partnership with the RGB, told reporters that the crackdown was for good.
Mr Musabyimana said explained that some of the churches that had been shut down operated in tents, exposing worshippers to risks.
“This is not being done to prevent people from praying but to ensure the safety and tranquillity of worshippers,” he said.
Himbara said what mattered most was that these churches were willing to open their doors to help communities across the country.
“The churchgoers sang and praised God who they believe will set things rights,” he said. “In Kagame’s Rwanda that is full of poverty, division and oppression, it makes perfect sense that indeed thousands of people flock to churches without hesitation. The Rwandan churches are not unique in this sense . As elsewhere, churches actively and creatively respond to the new reality of a broken world. Churches offer hope and a better future. But to dictators like Kagame, space for independent thoughts and an alternative future is dangerous.”
