Police detains Pastor Murenzi

KIGALI -Police is holding a Kigali city senior pastor over alleged defilement and rape of seven school girls. Pastor Charles Murenzi of Shining Light Church was arrested yesterday after Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Chief, Costa Habyara, quizzed him on Thursday.Habyara confirmed yesterday that Murenzi is being detained and his case would be sent to court.“The pastor came here (Kacyiru) this morning and we arrested him. His file will be forwarded to prosecution next week,” he said. On Thursday, Pastor Murenzi was interrogated at CID in Kacyiru over six hours. He was accompanied by his wife Jolly, who is the head pastor of Shining Light Church.The girls sat in the same interrogation room with Murenzi and narrated their alleged sexual harassments to Chief Superintendent Habyara. Some of them showed up at CID clad in school uniforms.The other detectives present during the interrogation session included Rose Iribagiza, an assistant inspector of police in charge of gender based violence at CID.Murenzi, according to a police source, denied any wrongdoing. He, the source added, declined to respond to the girls’ claims in the absence of his lawyer.The girls alleged that the pastor sexually harassed them while they were still in his church. Some of them were minors at the time of the alleged crimes. They allege that Murenzi harassed them when his wife was away. Murenzi’s wife, Jolly has in the past defended her husband being witch-hunted.The pastor’s arrest comes a month after an 18-year-old born-again girl walked to the CID headquarters and claimed the pastor sexually harassed her. In an earlier interview, the girl claimed that church members attempted to force a cover-up in order to save the church from collapse. The girls who accuse Murenzi are part of the youths that broke away from the church two years after the alleged sexual harassment.Senior leaders from the Association of Churches of Born Again Christians have in the past demanded a full probe into Murenzi’s lifestyle.Ends

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Police detains Pastor Murenzi