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Ghostly rodents drive Malawi's President out of his 300-room home

By Meera Selva, Africa Correspondent

14 March 2005

The President of Malawi has moved out of his luxurious, 300-room mansion,
insisting the building is haunted. President Bingu Wa Mutharika claimed he
felt ghostly rodents crawling over his body when the lights were turned out
in his home on the outskirts of the capital, Lilongwe.

He has moved to another palace in Mtunthama, a town in a tobacco-growing
area 60 miles away, until clergy can exorcise the spirits. Neither his
bodyguards nor his wife, the First Lady Ethel, have detected any
supernatural presence in the house.

Last May, when Mr Mutharika, 71, came to power, he threw Malawi's parliament
out of the New State House and claimed it for his personal use, ignoring
protests that he was reneging on election promises to cut government
spending. Parliament has not been able to meet since September because of
the lack of an appropriate venue, and is to reconvene in March in rented
offices. Parliamentary committees have had to conduct their business in
motels and at one point MPs have considered using a sports stadium for their
debates.

Now clergy from the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvary and Faith Of God
churches have all been asked to offer prayers for the building. As well as
the rodents, Mr Mutharika insists he has heard footsteps and strange noises
in the presidential suite at night.

The Rev Malani Ntonga, the presidential aide on Christian affairs, told
reporters ghosts would not be allowed to harm the President. He added: "No
strategy designed from the pits of hell will prosper against the President
because we have asked for divine intervention to cast the blood of Jesus
against any evil plots against the President.''

The mansion was built by Malawi's founding president Hastings Kamuzu Banda,
who ruled the country as an autocrat for 28 years from 1966. The house took
20 years and $100m to build and is set on 555 hectares. Mr Banda himself
lived there for only 90 days. His successor, Makili Muluzi, who came to
power in 1994 through the country's first multi-party elections refused to
use the building, calling it "obscene opulence'' in one of the poorest
countries in Africa.

Mr Muluzi later became known for being as extravagant as his predecessor,
but his early decision to turn the palace into parliamentary offices after
failing to find an international buyer, won him widespread approval at home
and abroad.

Mr Muluzi and Mr Banda lived most of their terms in office at the Fanjika
Palace in Malawi's commercial centre, Blantyre. President Mutharika said New
State House was better suited to be a private residence than a parliamentary
building.

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