The religious service was led by one Fortunee Mukankusi, 61, also arrested.<\/p>\n
Police and local leaders found the group at about 5pm, congregating in a forest located in Gisanga Village, Gisanga Cell, Mbuye Sector.<\/p>\n
Worshippers belong to eight different churches; Catholic, Anglican, Seventh Day Adventist, Methodist, Presbyterian, pentecostal, Goshen and Islam.<\/p>\n
They had come from different sectors in three districts; Ruhango (Mbuye, Ntongwe, Kinazi), Muhanga (Shyogwe) and Kamonyi (Nyamiyaga, Nyarubaka). <\/p>\n
Wellars Kayitare, the executive secretary for Mbuye Sector, who was part of the enforcement team, warned the believers against such prohibited practices.<\/p>\n
He reminded them of the Covid-19 risks they are exposing themselves to, but also putting their families and communities at the same risk.<\/p>\n
Kayitare advised them to go to churches which were allowed to resume.<\/p>\n
“Religious services are not prohibited; however, it is only permitted in places of worship which were allowed to resume and adhering to health guidelines against Covid-19,” Kayitare told the group.<\/p>\n
Places of worship allowed to resume can only function at 50% maximum occupancy.<\/p>\n
“Coming and overcrowding in this forest… you are not doing any good to yourselves; it should be your lives first before anything,” Kayitare told the violators.<\/p>\n
Last week, eight people, who were part of the group that was found praying in the house in Rubengera Sector, Karongi District, tested positive for Covid-19. <\/p>\n
Superintendent of Police (SP) Theobald Kanamugire, the Police spokesperson for the Southern region warned against such prohibited gatherings.<\/p>\n
He thanked members of the public, who facilitate the enforcement through sharing of information on those flouting the Covid-19 prevention directives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Thirty-three people were on Tuesday, May 11, arrested in Mbuye Sector of Ruhango District for holding a prayer gathering contrary to the government directives on preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-43512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43512\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43512"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=43512"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=43512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}