Religious predator sare on the increase on the continent. They unashamedly try to outdo their peers; whether it’s driving flashy cars or living in outlandish mansions. The most astonishing thing is that they have hordes of followers.

A recent pastor in the southern parts of Africa recently captured the headlines when he was arrested for selling tickets to heaven- and people were buying them.

Rwanda has not been spared from that brand of evangelism, therefore it has put in place strict measures to regulate the proliferation of worship centres. It has been met with a lot of hostility by many who see the potential of their daily bread flying away.

There is one flashy and very controversial pastor whose make-shift church was one of those closed down for not meeting standards. In one of his social media postings, he is seen urging his followers to make financial offerings so that God blesses them with a Range Rover like the one he recently acquired, and people were scrambling to put their meagre savings in the basket!

How desperate can people be?

Ever since the closure of his church, the pastor now conducts his services from one of the five star hotels in Kigali.

There is another sect that carries out what it calls "deliverance” saying that inherited names from our ancestors carry a curse with them. They promise to deliver the follower from the curse and replace the name from one out of the Bible. And it comes with a price.

Where does one draw the line between genuine preaching and con games? Some unscrupulous self-appointed God’s messengers are continuously preying on gullible people and should not be allowed to get away with it.