The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is once again proving that in Malawian politics, the hunger for power knows no dignity, morality, or limit. Over the past weeks, Malawians have been subjected to a bizarre spectacle: the public display of an obviously frail, puffed-up 88-year-old Peter Mutharika, paraded through markets and town centres as though he were some circus attraction.
It is not just disturbing, it is shameful.
From Msipe in Ntcheu, through Biwi Triangle Lilongwe all the way to Jenda and Mzuzu, the talk on the ground has not been about policies, solutions, or even the DPP’s manifesto. Instead, it has been reduced to a single haunting narrative and parade proving that former President Arthur Peter Mutharika is fit and alive enough for the job he is seeking.
The journey itself betrayed the truth.
What should have been a routine political roadshow turned into a two-day ordeal, punctuated by unscheduled stopovers to allow the former president’s physicians to attend to him.
By the time Mutharika arrived in Mzuzu, he had no scheduled engagements. Instead, his day was dedicated to medical checkups and what insiders describe as “make-up sessions” to ensure he appeared healthy enough for his rallies or rather circuses.
Behind the staged optics lies an open secret. Mutharika’s frail body is being propped up by steroids, glucose, and cosmetic manipulation.
To the uncritical eye, he may look somewhat rejuvenated. But to anyone paying closer attention, the difference between his fatigued, slouched look at Njamba’s manifesto rally and the artificially enhanced “triumphant entry” images is glaring.
This is not just political strategy, it is political theatre. A carefully crafted illusion by the DPP’s master illusionists, who, in their own desperation, have started believing their deception.
The DPP has a history of resorting to theatrics to mask its failings.
Malawians will recall the “Midnight Six” saga after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, when the party tried to conceal the truth about the president’s passing. That DNA of deceit runs deep in the DPP. Today, the same pattern repeats itself, this time, with the ailing younger Mutharika being positioned as fit to run for the presidency.
Yet, leadership is not a ceremonial function. It demands agility, sound judgment, and the stamina to manage crises. Malawi, still reeling from economic hardship, food insecurity, and institutional decay, cannot afford to gamble on a man whose very presence on stage is sustained by a cocktail of medicine and manipulation.
But greed within the DPP establishment has blinded the party to this reality.
The circus is being orchestrated by familiar faces.
Gertrude Mutharika, ever the silent but calculating partner, sits by her husband’s side, presiding over the parade as though staging a royal procession. Norman Chisale, the ever-present shadow of the Mutharika era, lurks behind, determined to regain his grip on state power by keeping his old benefactor on political life support.
Alfred Gangata, the businessman-turned-political opportunist, reportedly ferried supporters from across the Central and Southern Regions to create a false sense of love and legitimacy for Mutharika. Peter Mukhito, once the feared police chief, now a fading figure allegedly battling his own cognitive decline, and then Shadreck Namalomba, the party’s embattled spokesperson, are the ones managing Mutharika’s itineraries.
These men are not loyalists, they are political gamblers. Their motive is not service to Malawians, nor even genuine care for Mutharika. It is raw greed. They believe that by forcing the old man back into power, they can return to the corridors of influence, the tenders, the cuts, and the unchecked impunity that defined their years in government.
The sad reality is that the DPP’s obsession with projecting strength has come at the expense of honesty and integrity.
Instead of using this campaign period to reflect on their own governance failures between 2014 and 2020, failures marked by corruption scandals, cronyism, and the collapse of key institutions, the party has doubled down on deception.
This “circus campaign” is not about APM. It is about Gertrude, Chisale, Gangata, Mukhito, Namalomba, and others clinging to his fragile frame as a political ladder back to power.
But this gamble may backfire.
In today’s Malawi, where information spreads fast through social media and radio debates in trading centres, illusions are easily punctured.
Ordinary Malawians can see through the facade. They know when someone is genuinely strong, and when someone is being wheeled out for political theatre. The bewildered looks on the faces of market-goers in Msipe, Jenda and Katoto tell the story. This is not inspiration. This is exploitation.
What makes the situation even more tragic is that the DPP seems determined to normalize this spectacle. By insisting that Mutharika is fit, by staging these rallies, and by ridiculing those who question his health, the party is setting a dangerous precedent in Malawian politics.
It says that truth does not matter.
It says that optics outweigh competence.
It says that the greed of a few is more important than the future of millions.
And above all, it says that the dignity of an elder, even one who once occupied the highest office in the land, can be sacrificed on the altar of political ambition.
Unfortunately, the September elections are not just about which party takes State House. They are about whether Malawi can move beyond a culture of deception and impunity into a new era of honest, accountable leadership.
The DPP, in choosing to parade an ailing APM instead of confronting its internal divisions and grooming credible successors, has shown that it has not changed.
It is the same party that resisted Joyce Banda’s constitutional succession in 2012, the same party that presided over Cashgate-style scandals in its second coming, and the same party that continues to mock Malawians with empty spectacles instead of offering solutions.
What is unfolding is more than a political campaign, it is a tragedy. A tragedy of a once-respected professor of law, reduced to a pawn in the hands of greedy lieutenants. A tragedy of a party that refuses to evolve beyond its founding patriarchs. A tragedy of a nation forced to watch a circus instead of a campaign.
Malawi deserves better.
The DPP’s greed-driven charade is not only insulting, it is dangerous. It insults the intelligence of voters, undermines the dignity of the elderly, and betrays the spirit of a democracy that demands truth and accountability.
For Malawians, the question is no longer whether APM is fit. The question is whether the DPP itself is fit, for opposition, for leadership, or even for relevance in the future of this country.
