By Judith Moyo
Malawi’s late president Bingu wa Mutharika’s widow Callista suspects her husband had sexual encounters with some of the women that met him before he suffered cardiac arrest on the 5th of April.
Up to now, Callista is failing to come to terms with what happened for her husband to die but she has noted some suspicious developments that took place before Bingu died.
Some family members told the Nyasa Times that on Mutharika’s fateful day, he told his wife, Callista to go and visit some elderly people in Nkhoma, Lilongwe. The report says it was not a planned trip and Bingu just woke up and gave the directive to the wife.
“The wife was given money to take to the elderly people but she kept asking herself why that a surprise trip,” the family member said.
Callista reasoned with Bingu that whenever he had appointments, she was around within the house but on that day, Bingu insisted she leave State House and allow him to meet with the women MPs alone.
Another suspicion Callista has, according to family members, is the room in which Bingu met some women MPs and ministers on that day. He met Patricia Kaliati and later Agnes Penemulungu, Lilongwe legislator.
Bingu did not meet with the women in the usual conference room. It was a small room with about four or five chairs only.
“He met some women MPs and ministers in turns and he collapsed when he was in that small room with Agnes Penemulungu, a Lilongwe MP. The question our aunt has is why the former president decided to meet with the women in that special room,” the family member said.
Penemulungu has been ducking reporters after the incident. As if that is not enough, another suspicion Callista has is that when he was meeting with the women in turns, Mutharika had told guards to leave so that he was alone.
“Madame Callista wonders why the former president relieved guards of their work at that time. No wonder when Bingu collapsed, Penemulungu did not know what to do. It took time before she engaged guards. If Callista were there, perhaps Bingu could not have died because she could get immediate attention,” the member said.
“It took time to resuscitate the former president and no wonder he died right there at the State House because even when his personal doctor was alerted time had already gone,” the family member said.
The family member said Callista was briefing them at Ndata as family members and not for publicity. “Mutharika was referred to Kamuzu Central Hospital in an ordinary minibus and while there, ordinary stretcher was used.”
One of the guards said Mutharika had only one sock on one leg while in the ICU department. President Joyce Banda meanwhile said she was appointing a commission of inquiry to look into when and how Mutharika died and what medical attention he received. Nyasa Times
