The cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame on May 31 has taken the long-overdue decision to allow traditional weddings and related receptions to take place.
For nearly one and a half years, no traditional wedding was allowed in Rwanda; it has been restricted as part of prevention of more spread of COVID-19 pandemic in Rwanda where 26,962 positive cases were registered and 343 dead since March 14, 2020.
Religious and civil wedding have been taking place, but the famous traditional wedding which includes introduction and dowry giving was put on halt for that long.
The cabinet allows the wedding to take place under strict conditions.
“Traditional wedding and related receptions shall resume not exceeding 30 people. However, when conducted in open gardens/hotels, they should not exceed 30% of venue capacity and COVID-19 testing will be required,” the cabinet communique reads.
The Ministry of Local Government was tasked to issue more guidelines that are more or less similar in civil and religious weddings.
Meanwhile, the cabinet reduced the curfew hours where business shall operate until 9PM to pave away for the curfew which will cover the night from 10 PM through 4 AM.
Until May 31, businesses were closing at 8 PM, and the curfew covering seven hours from 9 PM to 4 AM.
However, Karongi district in the Western Province is an exception where curfew starts from 7PM-4AM. The decision was informed by the hike of numbers of new COVID-19 cases in the Western Province district.
Though Karongi registered no case on May 31, the previous days the district was much affected where 23 cases were confirmed on May 20 among others.
Meanwhile. the number of staff who will be allowed in public institutions has been increased to 50% of office capacity compared to 30% initially.
Besides COVID-19 measures, the cabinet worked on several other areas including approval of loan agreements and draft laws.
In appointments, Rwanda Food and Drugs Authority led in the number of staff that were appointed by the cabinet, 37 civil servants.
