By Kelly Rwamapera
Nyagatare court convicted four women of resisting health mandates such as vaccines and the national health insurance scheme, sentencing them to six years in prison for disobedience of enforcement of the law.
Judge Jean Baptiste Majyambere at Nyagatare Intermediate Court in Nyagatare District Eastern Province delivered the court’s decisions on January 9, 2024, in the absence of the accused following the substantial hearing on January 3, 2024.
The prosecution said that the women used to preach to fellow residents to refuse Covid vaccine inoculation and to not subscribe to the mandatory national health insurance scheme Mituelle de Sante.
Local authorities at Kageyo, Mwiri Sector, Kayonza District in Eastern Province arrested and dragged the four who claim to belong to the Seventh-day Adventist denomination to police in early September 2023.
The court established that the four were found guilty of inciting others to undermine the safety and effectiveness of Covid vaccines and other health mandates to which the four pleaded not guilty.
“Edith Ngendahimana, Genevieve Nikobahoze, Elisabeth Tuyigane, and Esther Mukamazimpaka incited the masses to resent vaccines and the national health insurance scheme, an act that comprises the crime of disobeying the enforcement of the law,” the court said during the ruling on January 9, 2024.
During the hearing, the accused insisted that they never sensitized anyone against vaccines or the national health insurance scheme, asking the court to examine the brochures they distributed which they said “was call to repent and prepare for Jesus’ Second Advent”
The prosecution submitted testimonies from two people and a report from local authorities all accusing the quartet of refusing vaccines and the mandatory health insurance scheme Mituelle de Sante, and mobilizing others to follow suit.
The quartet dismissed the two testimonies claiming that they did not know one of the witnesses and that the other was not biased, asking the court to get more testimonies from other residents.
In his cross-examination, Judge Majyambere wanted to know if the accused had taken Covid vaccines to which some said they did not take Covid vaccines while one of them said she did.
Judge Majyambere further asked the four uneducated women if they would accept taking the vaccines at the time of the hearing to which all of them said they did not trust the vaccines.
The four impoverished women, two of whom had babies on their backs, had been in custody for nearly four months when they first appeared before the court.
Rwanda vaccinated over 70 percent of its population with the Covid vaccines.
News reports show that some Rwandans fled to neighboring countries to avoid getting vaccinated.
The DW reported that authorities used force against residents who were hesitant to take the Covid vaccines.
Authorities have been arresting people who refuse health mandates including vaccines in the name of religious beliefs.
