President Lazarus Chakwera last night conferred honours on the country’s three living former Presidents by renaming and naming some places in the cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe.
A public notice signed by Secretary to the President and Cabinet (SPC) Colleen Zamba said Chakwera has, by virtue of powers conferred on him under Section 89(1)(b) of the constitution as read with Section 5 of the Regional and District Boundaries and Place Names Act, conferred honours on the Bakili Muluzi, Peter Mutharika and Joyce Banda.
Reads the statement: “In the city of Blantyre, Chileka International Airport to be renamed Bakili Muluzi International Airport, in the city of Lilongwe, the unnamed portion of the Lilongwe West Bypass Road from the M12 intersection with to Kamuzu Procession Road intersection near Bunda Turn-off to be Joyce Banda Highway, and in the city of Lilongwe, the unnamed Area 18 Cloverleaf Traffic Interchange to be named Arthur Peter Mutharika Interchange.”
The conferment of the honours, according to the notice, is effect with from August 9 2025.
Muluzi and Mutharika did not pick up their phones last night, but Banda described conferment as a pleasant surprise.
“What a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t aware about the conferment,” she said. “We laid the foundation stone for that project. That time I had invited Kenya’s former President Mwai Kibaki to discuss infrastructure development of our countries.”
Commenting on the development, political scientist Ernest Thindwa described the conferment as a “good public relations gimmick” by Chakwera.
He said the move was one way of creating an enabling relationship between the incumbent President and the country’s former leaders.
Muluzi was the country’s second head of State and the first in the multiparty era from 1994 to 2004 while Banda was the first woman president after ascending to the presidency in line with the constitutional order in April 2012 following the death of president Bingu wa Mutharika.
She governed the country until May 2014 when she lost to Peter Mutharika.
