KIGALI (AFP) — Grace Room Ministries once filled giant stadiums in Rwanda three times a week before the evangelical organization was shut down in May.

It is one of the 10,000 churches reportedly closed by the government for failing to comply with a 2018 law designed to regulate places of worship.

The law introduced new rules on health, safety, and financial disclosures, and requires all preachers to have theological training.

President Paul Kagame has been vocal in his criticisms of the evangelical churches that have sprouted across the small country in Africa’s Great Lakes region.

“If it were up to me I wouldn’t even reopen a single church,” Kagame told a news briefing last month.

“In all the development challenges we are dealing with, the wars... our country’s survival — what is the role of these churches? Are they also providing jobs? Many are just thieving... some churches are just a den of bandits,” he said.

The vast majority of Rwandans are Christian according to a 2024 census, with many now travelling long and costly distances to find places to pray.

Observers say the real reason for the closures comes down to control.

Kagame’s government is saying “there’s no rival in terms of influence,” Louis Gitinywa, a lawyer and political analyst based in Kigali, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The ruling party “bristles when an organization or individual gains influence,” he said, a view also expressed to AFP by an anonymous government official.

The 2018 law requires churches to submit annual action plans stating how they align with “national values.” All donations must be channeled through registered accounts.

Pastor Sam Rugira, whose two church branches were shut down last year for failing to meet fire safety regulations, said the rules mostly affected new evangelical churches that have “mushroomed” in recent years.

But Kagame has described the church as a relic of the colonial period, a chapter of its history with which the country is still grappling.