Health mandates still reign in Rwanda, take people to custody

I attended an arraignment, a court ruling and an appeal on different cases against individuals some call “anti-vaxers” (called the enemies of development in Rwanda) and in three different courts of law.

Kiramuruzi Primary Court in Rwanda's East which remanded nine individuals in November 2023 for not possessing authorities' health insurance scheme, not taking children to school. All the nine are among the few who refused Covid vaccines most of them were forcibly vaccinated. Faith Reporters

There is no official data on how many are facing charges for not accepting the Covid vaccines in this so-called Covid aftermath or for not subscribing to the authorities’ health insurance scheme.

I count over 300 people who have been arrested and others incarcerated since mid-2023 of which about 100 have been reported in the local media.

Media reports show that at the helm of forced vaccination, those who were hesitant had one option to flee the country of suffer the full weight of the overambitious “working” authorities.

This tiny Central African country also part of the East African Community bloc, is full of mandates from the mandatory vegetable garden at home to the reporting to authorities those who do not walk the authorities’ talk.

As a journalist who has been reporting health mandate issues since the inception of the Covid beliefs, I decided to attend court proceedings to learn about the crimes related to health mandates that drag the hunger-stricken citizens to stand before well-fed justices.

I attended an arraignment, a court ruling and an appeal on different cases against individuals some call “anti-vaxers” (called the enemies of development in Rwanda) and in three different courts of law.

In all these court sessions, the prosecutors submitted that the individuals refused the Covid vaccines, asking the courts to punish them for possessing the mindset that doesn’t promote the country’s development agenda.

Other accusations include not subscribing to the authorities’ health insurance scheme, not attending the community cleaning (also inspected by the church for the Seventh-day Adventists) and not taking children to school.

Not all Rwandans take their children to school or subscribe to the authorities’ health insurance and not all who don’t are in custody apart from those who did not get Covid vaccines.

Education statistics show that less than 12 percent of students can accomplish grade 12 in 12 years, implying that some drop out of school while others have hardships that make them take longer than 12 years.

The same statistics show that 7,000-10,000 children dropped out of school at the primary level per district between 2020 and 2021.

However, when a child of one who did not accept the Covid vaccine is not at school, authorities arrest that person and have him/her prosecuted for the wrong mindset.

Statistics show that up to 20 percent may not be able to subscribe to the mandatory health insurance scheme per year but those in custody for not possessing the insurance card have one thing in common – they did not accept the Covid vaccines.

Authorities spread hatred for those who did not accept the Covid vaccines, labeling them as “enemies of development” and “people of bad mindset”

In one hearing at Kabarondo Primary Court in the East of the country in August 2023 prosecutors emphasized that the “enemies of development” had refused to take the Covid vaccines.

The Seventh-day Adventist authorities had also submitted a report against these church followers for not walking the church’s talk on vaccines and beliefs.

Prosecutors explained that five of the 20 who had been arrested were enemies of both state and religion while demanding to have them in custody for 30 days on remand.

The accused also have one common place of arrest: while worshiping or preaching, signaling to the masses that praying and preaching away from the authorized churches is a crime.

In November 2023, a group was arrested on Friday in their evening Sabbath worship at a believer’s home in Nyanza in the south, one of them was beaten to death in custody.

The others are nursing wounds from the law enforcement punishers who wanted to “erase the bad mindset” of these unvaccinated individuals.

All people including the media look at such incidents as worth happening on the enemies of development with a bad mindset.

The writer is Kelly Rwamapera

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