Malawi’s late president Bingu wa Mutharika’s widow Callista suspects that her husband had a sexual encounter with a female MP when he suffered a cardiac arrest.The late president collapsed while in a room alone with Agnes Penemulungu, Lilongwe legislator. The guards and other government officials had been told to step outside. His wife had earlier been sent on an unplanned errand out of town.
Family members said when Mutharika collapsed in the room his female companion was so shocked that she did not know what to do. She took some time before she called for help.
“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 former First Lady has been briefing her family members and is demanding answers. The female MP has refused to provide any answers. Some family members told 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.
President Joyce Banda said she was appointing a commission of inquiry to look into when and how Mutharika died.
