{The Rwanda Governance Board has announced that within the last two years over 405 religious institutions requested to register so that they operate legally in Rwanda. However, RGB said that to date some of them are already registered, while others are still going through the registration process.}
The legal advisor in the department that oversees political parties, religious organizations and NGOs at RGB, Bwenge Jean Marie Vianney, told IGIHE that since the inception of RGB the number of religious institutions in the nation has grown.
Mr. Bwenge stated that ”By the end of September 2013 we had 405 religious organizations requesting to operate in Rwanda and about 221 of those have already registered and received full permission to operate because they fulfill all necessary requirements. Other cases are being examined”
Furthermore, Mr. Bwenge added that there is a Law no 06/2012 of 17/2/2012 which sets processes and requirements to establish a religious organization in Rwanda. The requirements include a request letter addressed to the Head of the Rwanda Governance Board and many other legal documents.
“They also have to tell us other plan of actions that they will implement within the first year of operation, as well as the budget they will use within that year of approval” noted Bwenge.
Since its creation, RGB has dealt with disputes involving people in religious organizations. A couple recent cases involved individuals of muslim faith. And another case occurred this year in an ADEPR Church.
The majority of such disputes involve church leaders who failed to share resources and leadership among their respective churches.
Bwenge said RGB has warned such institutions to abide to their requirement, while at the same time avoiding quarrels that may result in legal actions taken against them due to malpractice within their respective religious organization.
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