Structures like these were noticeable everywhere purported to be churches. In until the authorities decided to conduct a review covering sanitation and security. A vast majority of them has no basics like a toilet
The late Mwalimu Dr. Julius Nyerere-Pan-Africanist, statesman, and the first President of Tanzania, once delivered a profound admonition to the Church. Paraphrased, he argued that if the Church does not address the real challenges facing societies, it risks degenerating into an institution that comforts only the ignorant and the fearful. This forms an important conceptual point of departure in understanding church and society. The Church must remain deeply engaged with the lived realities of people, even as its spiritual mission looks toward life beyond. Faith must be experienced, not merely felt-manifesting its existence in the social, economic, and moral transformation of communities.
However, in examining President Kagame’s recent critique of the proliferation of churches in Rwanda, one must recognize that Rwanda is an exceptional case, shaped by a history unlike that of any other African nation. The Rwandan state’s posture toward Christian institutions is not simply ideological; it is rather rooted in the complex, painful relationship between certain church actors and the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and moderate Hutus. A substantial body of scholarship documents instances where religious institutions, leaders, and networks were either complicit in, silent about, or institutionally entangled with genocidal violence. This legacy inevitably informs state policy today.
In this sense, Rwanda’s regulatory approach is not a wholesale indictment of Christianity, but a response to a historical rupture where moral authority was deeply shaken. What is unfortunate, however, is that because of that failed role, the critique of the Church often emerges from political corridors rather than through genuine institutional introspection aimed at restoring both the spiritual and social well-being of Rwandan communities. Closure of churches on grounds of health and safety, or crackdowns on exploitative doctrines, should ideally be accompanied by a conscious effort to help the Church rediscover its prophetic and developmental role.
Yet, it would be analytically unsound to conclude that Christianity or the Church more broadly, is responsible for Africa’s developmental challenges. Political economy scholarship shows that Africa’s developmental trajectory is shaped by multiple historical, structural, and geopolitical forces, including colonial legacies, global economic systems, and contemporary governance dynamics. Indeed, the United States-arguably one of the most Christian-saturated societies in the world, is simultaneously the leading global economy. This illustrates that religion does not inherently impede development, nor does it inherently guarantee it. Context matters.
Thus, the relationship between Church and development is best understood as contextual, not universal. In Rwanda, that context is inseparable from the genocide, accountability, and the state’s ambitious pursuit of social order, social and economic transformation and national unity. In other African countries, the dynamics differ. some churches are engines of social welfare, education, and entrepreneurial empowerment; others, unfortunately, have drifted toward commercialized salvation and psychological manipulation.
President Kagame’s warning that some churches exploit vulnerable citizens, prioritizing profit over genuine faith or human uplift, should not be dismissed outright. It raises legitimate concerns about the rise of neo-Pentecostal capitalism, prosperity-gospel movements, and loosely regulated prophetic entrepreneurship that often prey on economic desperation of some segments of societies. The state has a responsibility to protect citizens from harm may it be physical, economic, psychological or otherwise.
But equally, the Church retains a sacred responsibility. To stand in the gap where the state cannot, to humanize where bureaucracy dehumanizes, and to offer meaning, comfort, and moral guidance where markets and politics fail. A balanced ecosystem requires both institutions to function in complement, not conflict.
Ultimately, the debate should not reduce the Church to an impediment or portray the state as an overbearing regulator. It should instead re-center the original wisdom of Nyerere: a Church disengaged from human suffering becomes irrelevant, and a state uninterested in the moral and social foundations of its people risks governing a spiritually fractured society. Rwanda’s exceptional history requires exceptional sensitivity, but the universal principle remains: faith must uplift, institutions must reform, and society must advance—together.
Haron Mwangi, PhD, is a Critical Political Economy of Development, Media and Communication Consultant
