Skip to main content

Rwanda's Government Closes Churches to Gain More Control

Share This article

In an effort to gain more control over the country's religious community, the government of Rwanda had closed thousands of churches and dozens of mosques.  

The government says it is only acting to save the lives of followers due to the churches failure to comply with building safety standards.  

President Paul Kagame has said he was shocked by the high number of churches in the small East African country of 12 million people.

"700 churches in Kigali?" he said of houses of worship in the nation's capital in March. "Are these boreholes (deep wells) that give people water? I don't think we have as many boreholes. Do we even have as many factories? This has been a mess!"

Kagame said Rwanda doesn't need so many houses of worship, claiming that such a high number is only fit for bigger, more developed economies that have the means to sustain them.

Human rights groups have accused Kagame's government of clamping down on freedom of expression, which the president has denied. 

Six Pentecostal pastors who protested the church closures were arrested and accused of "illegal meetings with bad intentions," according to The Associated Press. 

The government is also taking other steps to rein in the nation's religious community through new laws. 

The proposed legislation would regulate faith-based organizations separately from civil society organizations, said Alexis Nkurunziza, president of the private Rwanda Religious Leaders Forum. Suggestions from religious leaders will soon be forwarded to the Rwanda Law Reform Commission for scrutiny and later to parliament, he told The Associated Press.

The legislation is expected to be pass easily as the ruling party holds a majority of seats in the country's parliament.

The new measure would also require pastors to have a theology degree before they start their own churches so that they teach correct doctrine, according to The Associated Press. The aim is to control the spread of Pentecostal churches that often spring up under leaders who claim to have received a call to preach. Not everyone, however, has the money for a degree.

The majority of churches that have been closed are said to be small Pentecostal prayer houses, with some preachers suspected of growing rich off often impoverished followers. Some churches meet in tents or houses that cannot accommodate crowds and noise pollution from nighttime gatherings is a concern, authorities said.

"The prayer houses were found in such poor physical conditions, and we are not targeting any religion," Anastase Shyaka, the head of the Rwanda Governance Board that regulates faith-based organizations, told the AP. "We are closing prayer houses of all different denominations and asking them to meet existing health and safety standards for their followers."

Local media in the capital have reported that over 6,000 churches have been closed so far across the country, but Shaka said the actual number was still being compiled.

Rwanda's government respects freedom of worship but protecting people's lives comes first, he said, adding that churches which meet the required safety standards will be reopened.

One new requirement for churches is the installation of a lightning rod after a lightning strike in March killed 16 worshippers and injured 140 at a Seventh-Day Adventist church in the southern part of the country. 

Share This article

About The Author

Steve Warren is a senior multimedia producer for CBN News. Warren has worked in the news departments of television stations and cable networks across the country. In addition, he also worked as a producer-director in television production and on-air promotion. A Civil War historian, he authored the book The Second Battle of Cabin Creek: Brilliant Victory. It was the companion book to the television documentary titled Last Raid at Cabin Creek currently streaming on Amazon Prime. He holds an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a B.A. in Communication from the University of