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President Mathuriaka has only one thing to do to rid his sumptuous
presidential palace of macabre rodents: empty his closets of the
skeletons that have been piled there since the days of Kamuzu Banda to
date. In my culture, when a man's conscience is ill at ease,he hears
strange noises. The case may not be different in Malawi. When you throw
out the lawmakers of the nation in order to misappropriate a building
assigned to them, what do you expect? Applause or bewitchment? Africans
have uncanny ways of fighting their foes, believe it or not!
PETER VAKUNTA
----- Original Message -----
From: f ossia <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, March 14, 2005 7:38 pm
Subject: Ghostly rodents drive Malawi's President out of his 300-room home
> ** Please visit our website: http://www.africanassociation.org **
>
> 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-
> growingarea 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
> parliamentout 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
> rentedoffices. 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,
> toldreporters ghosts would not be allowed to harm the President. He
> added: "No
> strategy designed from the pits of hell will prosper against the
> Presidentbecause 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
> himselflived 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
> FanjikaPalace in Malawi's commercial centre, Blantyre. President
> Mutharika said New
> State House was better suited to be a private residence than a
> parliamentarybuilding.
>
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