By Elie Mutangana, Kigali
Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) has so far shut down over 8,000 churches and prayer houses, accusing them of not meeting the ‘place of worship’ standards.
The regulating body on July 29, in collaboration with other relevant government agencies, conducted an inspection to ensure compliance with law and regulations governing Faith-based Organizations (FBO) in Rwanda.
Ultimately, over 13,000 churches and prayer houses were inspected. 59.3 percent of them were closed with immediate effects, over failure to comply with legal requirements and regulations.
Laws determining the organization and functioning of a Faith-Based Organization in Rwanda mandates an organized operation of a church within a safe environment.
According to the law, before setting up and an FBO, it is compulsory to submit an application letter addressed to the CEO of the RGB, stating the biographical information of its legal representative – including a bachelor degree in religious studies and clearly spelt out responsibility in the organization.
An organization must also submit a statement of the FBO detailing its doctrines.
Among other requirements, an organization must submit a notarized letter issued by district authority agreeing collaboration with the organization and also certifying that the church construction meet standards (building codes) in the area.
Notably, an organization is also required to issue its annual action plan and its source of budget to the regulator.
“The inspection focuses on verifying that denominations and prayer houses have registration documents issued by RGB, letter of collaboration with the district when a branch is opened and that prayer houses meet requirements (building codes) for their location. It also checks if the leaders hold the required academic degrees and certificates in Theology Studies at both organizational and parish/branch levels,” part of the RGB press release on August 1 stated.
But the government says the move does not aim to prevent people from praying.
According to the National Institute of Statistics Rwanda (NISR), 92 percent of the country’s population are Christians, making Christianity the largest religion in Rwanda.
The most recent census in 2022 indicated that 48 percent of Rwanda’s 14 million population are Roman Catholics, while Protestants cover 40 percent. Other Christian denominations, Muslims and non-religion collectively account for less than 10 percent of the population.
In 2022, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame commented on the saga and expressed a shock over the increase of prayer houses and churches in the country.
The capital Kigali alone has over 700 prayer houses and churches that serve less than two million population of the city. But, 185 of them have been closed.
“Seven hundred churches in Kigali? Are these boreholes that give people water? 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!” said the President who was recently sworn in to lead the country for a new five-year term.
He added that the country is not developed enough to sustain those churches.
HT Exclusive learnt that the move to regulate FBOs is not only happening in Rwanda, but also in countries like Kenya and Uganda, where there are conversations around regulating the FBOs, strictly including declaration of their source of budgets.
Building code and safety principles for a church
Faith-Based Organization in Rwanda must ensure their buildings comply with established national safety standards and building codes. This entails structural integrity, lightning protection and adherence to zoning law to ensure safety and peace of the congregants and surrounding environment.
The legislation requires that a church must measure at least 5,000 square meters, and must have a garden and adequate paved parking, as well as modern restrooms and sanitary facilities.
A church must additionally embrace noise pollution management both inside and outside its premises.
Rwandan law on environment stipulates that acts which cause emission of harmful noise or which is detrimental to human health and environment are prohibited. The law concerns not only churches but also other institutions in the country.
However, some religious leaders find the decision of imposing the instructions on all churches unbalanced, saying “they should not be applied to all people and places because people live in different standards and all places are not the same”.
“It becomes a challenge when you set a standard for a church in Kigali and the same standards face a church somewhere in the countryside. For instance, a church in Kigali which lies between neighborhoods of course need to install a sound proof, but there is no need to do so for a church in the countryside, which is on the top of the mountain where there are no homes around. How do you tell such churches to have a paved parking when the congregants don’t have even a motorcycle?”, asked Pastor Julius Kabagambe Nziza.
Usta Kayitesi, CEO of the RGB responded that the law states that, “when it comes to construction of churches, it should follow the building codes of respective areas as the construction masterplans of places are also different”.
“For example, on noise management, people look more at soundproofs than noise pollution standard. Soundproof is one of the mechanisms of managing noise pollution, which means that the congregations that do not make much noise in their worships do not absolutely need the soundproof,” the CEO said on the public broadcaster, Rwanda Television.
“Again, few years ago, a lightening hit a church in the south and seven people died, while others got injured. In those circumstances, the church would have installed a lightening conductor and also have a good place for cars and ambulance to evacuate people”.
“People should look at it from a security and orderliness perspective, and for accessibility in case of any emergencies,” she added.
Churches had been given a grace period to meet standards
The law governing FBOs in Rwanda voted in 2018. But then, leaders of the organizations found it too sudden for them to comply and meet the standards in the new law.
After understanding the requirements, the Inter- Religious Councils requested a grace period of five years to comply with some elements in the law including for example, acquiring a theological degree.
While the grace period ended last September 2023, in contrast, during the inspections, the regulator was shocked by the fact that instead of finding improvements in compliance, it recorded an extreme increase of cases of illegal and sub-standard churches.
“Over the years, we have been doing monitoring, but this particular time, we saw a few things including the mushrooming of those that are illegal actually. That’s a reality. A few more things include noise pollution even when the standards of noise pollution exist with legal instruments, the irregularity came up,” CEO Kayitesi said.
Rwandan social activists have urged FBOs to play a part in national transformation, including helping people in needs and improving the human and social and economic conditions.
“Some churches are making people poor instead of improving their lives. They are asking people to pay money [tithes] while lives have become difficult. Those money are not even taxes that can come back to them in many ways. Money are eaten by individuals,” said Rusa Bagirishya, a Pan-African Rwandan scholar.
A Local leader who spoke to HT Exclusive sadly recounted how he receives small number of people when he summons a community meeting, but the churches get maximum crowds.
“You can’t get people when you have an important message to communicate. They are interested in being told that Jesus is about to come. The situation has been a factor that leads to stunting of development, not only in Rwanda but Africa in generally,” he said on the condition of anonymity.
Rev. Dr. Laurent Mbanda, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Rwanda believes that the law and instructions came at the right time. He said he was not surprised by it, as the mushrooming of illegal preachers and false-teaching was becoming alarming.
Mbanda who believes in ‘prosperity preaching’, accuses his fellow leaders of organizations of being irresponsible.
At his Anglican church, when the law was promulgated in 2018, he sat with his staff and started a mapping process internally in his organization and started identifying pastors who do not have degrees and which parishes should have a person with the degree.
They also checked other missing standards and tried to comply.
“I started a theological school to address the issue of education because it was becoming expensive for us to send them[preachers] outside Kenya, Uganda or other places,” said the Archbishop who also leads an umbrella of FBOs.
However, some preachers still strongly believe that they can possibly teach without education, referring to what European missionaries in Africa told their forefathers that “they could simply preach without education”.
