President Peter Mutharika has broken his silence on his health, publicly declaring his fitness and that he will see through his five-year tenure ending in 2030.
In a video posted on Facebook capturing his address to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters gathered outside the gate of Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe on his arrival from Blantyre, the President said his administration is stabilising the economy and ending starvation.
Headline numbers appear to support Mutharika’s assertions. The country’s inflation rate has eased from 29.1 percent last October to 23.8 percent in March this year—the lowest general rise in prices since 2022.
Maize prices, which have helped to bring down inflation, slumped from around K1 360 per kg in October to K900 currently, representing a drop of around 33 percent.
With inflation easing thanks to food availability at much lower prices and the Mutharika administration’s tight fiscal discipline, interest rates have dropped from around 26 percent in late 2025 to 24 percent currently.
Said the President: “Everyone is able to eat now because we have addressed the food situation. It’s up to a person now whether to have three, four or even five meals a day,” he said.
The President, however, asked Malawians to be patient, saying his administration inherited a struggling economy when it took office six months ago from former president Lazarus Chakwera administration.
“We found this country in a total mess. Everything was in a poor state, including the roads,” said Mutharika.
The President also said fuel is steadily getting into the country, expressed commitment to urgently rehabilitate roads nationwide and declared that he was in good health.
The health of Mutharika, 85, has been a subject of speculation, with his delegation of Cabinet ministers to some public events, including the opening of the 2026 Tobacco Marketing Season mid last month, fuelling the rumour mill.
But he said those spreading the rumours about his death will instead predecease him.
“Someone from Nigeria also said I will die, but he is the one who ended up in the grave, he is six feet under while I am here breathing fresh air, oxygen. He is gone. Don’t wish others bad things,” said Mutharika, in an apparent reference to a purported prophecy by departed Nigerian prophet T. B. Joshua during his first term of office between 2014 and 2019.
Mutharika, who won the September 16 2025 General Election with 56 percent of the vote to make a comeback after his loss in the June 23 2020 court-sanctioned Fresh Presidential Election, said fuel supplies were “trickling in” and that his administration’s interventions were starting to take effect.
But critics argued yesterday that the impact of the stabilising indicators is yet to percolate into improved cost of living for the majority of Malawians,
especially after the Mutharika administration re-introduced the automatic fuel price mechanism, which has sharply raised fuel prices between October 2025 and May 2026 largely due to external factors, including the war in the Middle East.
In addition, non-food inflation remains elevated while fuel supply has been erratic. After stabilising late last year, fuel shortages resurfaced last month amid fresh price hikes.
On January 19 2026, Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) raised petrol price by 41.9 percent from K3 499 to K4 965 per litre while diesel rose by 41.29 percent to K4 945.
Following adoption of automatic pricing mechanism, the fuel pump prices were further adjusted on April 1 to K6 672 per litre for petrol and K6 687 for diesel.
Opposition pushes back
In an interview yesterday, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) spokesperson Jessie Kabwila said Malawians are still struggling.
Kabwila, whose party was booted out of office last September, cited high fuel and fertiliser prices, unemployment and rising living costs as evidence that the economy has not improved.
In a separate interview, UTM Party president Dalitso Kabambe said the picture Mutharika is painting does not reflect lived realities of the majority.
He lamented that businesses continue to struggle with forex shortages, transport costs remain high, commodity prices continue rising, and households are under immense pressure.
Kabambe, a former Reserve Bank of Malawi governor, said government must urgently focus on restoring forex stability through production and exports, supporting businesses by reducing policy uncertainty and excessive burdens, investing aggressively in infrastructure, reducing wasteful expenditure, and strengthening genuine food security through irrigation, mechanisation, storage and affordability.
However, Kabambe acknowledged that no administration can fully reverse years of economic deterioration within six months. He said the fuel shortages, forex constraints, inflationary pressures, rising debt, and weakened production base are structural challenges that accumulated over many years.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Defenders Coalition chairperson Michael Kaiyatsa yesterday welcomed the President’s decision to address the nation, but said Malawians want tangible results.
On his part, Nyika Institute executive director Moses Mkandawire said the economy is showing signs of recovery, though gradual.
“The damage was gargantuan. It will take time, but there is progress,” he said.
Economist Christopher Mbukwa of Mzuzu University said the real test lies in resolving forex, fuel and fertiliser shortages.
Malawi’s economy is faced with slow growth and the United Nations (UN) recently said economic transformation remains slow and constrained by deep structural weaknesses that could derail further implementation of Malawi 2063 (MW2063), the country’s long-term development strategy that seeks to graduate the economy to lower middle-income status by 2030 and upper middle-income by 2063.
In its recently published Common Country Analysis, the UN says despite recovery efforts, the economy is struggling with low growth, rising vulnerability and limited transformation which threaten sustainabl e transformation.
In the 2026/27 National Budget, economic growth is projected to rise to 3.8 percent in 2026 from 2.7 percent in 2025 and further strengthen to 4.9 percent in 2027.
