Rwanda President Paul Kagame has announced to fellow countrymen the government may start taxing church offerings as part of ongoing efforts to tame rogue preachers exploiting congregants.
The development comes in the wake of the wide-scale closure of nearly 8,000 churches in the country which authorities said failed to meet regulatory requirements.
The Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), the country’s religious organisations regulatory body, said 59.3 per cent of over 13,000 churches inspected over the past one month were operating illegally and did not meet infrastructural requirements.
Speaking this past week in his first public address after his swearing-in, Kagame said the government is mulling over the idea of cracking the whip on rogue preachers by taxing whatever they collect from their followers.
“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, so churches pay tax on the money they get from people,” he said.
“If truth is to be told, these mushrooming churches are just there to squeeze even the last penny from poor Rwandans, as those who own them enrich themselves,” Kagame, who has maintained that preachers must have a degree in Theology, added.
He was speaking on Wednesday last week after presiding over the swearing-in of re-appointed Prime Minister, Edouard Ngirente, and new members of parliament.
Kagame said cases, where some churches exhibit extremist tendencies, have been witnessed by way of cult leaders leading followers to their graves by brainwashing them to starve to death.
“It has happened in other countries,” he said in an apparent reference to Kenya where Pastor Paul Mackenzie is battling a court case over multiple deaths of his followers in Shakahola forest, Kilifi county.
Mackenzie is accused of allegedly indoctrinating and manipulating his Good News International Church congregants to starve to death so they could meet Jesus.
More than 400 people have been confirmed to have died and buried in shallow mass graves in the expansive Chakama Ranch within the Shakahola forest.
As part of interventions to avert similar occurrences in the future, the Kenyan government has initiated plans to tame unscrupulous preachers from taking advantage of their followers.
In its final report, the presidential task force mandated to review the legal and regulatory framework governing religious organisations in Kenya has proposed a number of stringent measures to tame rogue preachers.
The Rev Mutava Musyimi-led team has in the draft Religious Organisations Bill, 2024, proposed a Sh5 million fine or 10-year jail term for preachers who fraudulently obtain money from their followers.
The taskforce proposed the creation of the Religious Affairs Commission and stipulated tough registration criteria and vetting of religious organisations and umbrella bodies.
The bill, if enacted, will require all religious groups to have constitutions, have their leaders elected or appointed and have their financial records filed and scrutinised by the government annually.
