Malawi’s Former Vice President Khumbo Hestings Kachali, has asked President Peter Mutharika to wake up and provide solutions to the country’s political impasse before the situation goes out of hand.
The former Vice President concerns follow Mutharika’s silence on continued post-election protests in the country.
Some Malawians have been protesting against management of the May Presidential elections results, and have been demanding the resignation of the Malawi Electoral Commission Chairperson Jane Ansa.
But the former President says huge crowds patronising the protests across the country would be a clear indication that the people are not only protesting against the results of the elections.
“The leadership need to understand that things are not right in the country, people are suffering economically, he needs to admit that the situation is bad and provide answers,” he said.
He has condemned negative remarks from the government side against protesters and human rights activists who have been organising the protests.
President Mutharika has at many times accused the opposition of collaborating with the human rights activists of attempting to overthrow his government through the organising of the protests.
But Kachali says such remarks just worsen the situation.
“You can’t fight fire for fire, this is just fueling the already volatile situation,” said Kachali, “I was expecting the President to consider the situation at hand with seriousness and resolve them as the country’s leader and not a party leader.”
Recently, political analyst Enerst Thindwa of the University of Malawi also asked Mutharika to celebrate out of hiding and resolve the country’s political problems.
The former Vice President said he was expecting Mutharika to engage the country’s former Presidents and Vice Presidents such as Joyce Banda, Bakili Muluzi and others to help him solve the problems.
He hopes that the former leaders would be willing to partner with Mutharika to map the way forward.
