Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said he is considering introducing a tax on church donations to address the problem of extortion and exploitation of evangelical clergy.

In his first speech since his recent re-election, Kagame strongly condemned those religious leaders who abuse their positions to manipulate individuals and extort money from them.

“These unscrupulous people who abuse religion and churches to manipulate people and take money and other things from them will force us to introduce a tax so that churches pay taxes on the money they get from people,” he said.

Rwandan authorities announced this week that they had closed around 8,000 churches that were operating without proper permits and did not meet infrastructure standards.

Addressing the public after overseeing the reappointment of Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente and the inauguration of new members of parliament, President Kagame declared his intention to crack down on other unauthorized religious leaders and their places of worship.

“To tell the truth, these mushrooming churches only serve to squeeze every last cent from poor Rwandans while their owners enrich themselves,” said Kagame.

The number of Pentecostal churches in Rwanda has increased recently. Many of them have adopted prosperity gospel teachings, which have attracted larger numbers of “poor believers.”

The challenge of regulating preachers is not unique to Rwanda. Uganda announced last week that it would publish a white paper on regulating worship following reports of extortion by religious leaders.

In Kenya, the judiciary is currently dealing with the case of Paul Mackenzie and his followers. They are accused of having manipulated believers into participating in deadly fasting periods.