SECOND OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MALAWI
PROFESSOR ARTHUR PETER MUTHARIKA
Kamuzu Palace, Lilongwe
Your Excellency,
RE: YOU HAVE NOT CORRECTED THE BREACH. YOU HAVE DEEPENED IT. YOUR OWN VICE-PRESIDENT HAS NOW SPOKEN.
Your Excellency, I wrote to you on 28 July 2026.
I warned you that presiding over Cabinet through the Second Vice-President when the First Vice-President, Dr Jane Ansah, was present and available, was a direct breach of Section 92(3) of the Constitution. I told you that shall means shall, that the order is mandatory, not discretionary.
You did not answer.
Yesterday, 14 September 2026, all reputed media houses reported that a Cabinet meeting was held at Kamuzu Palace, chaired by you, and Vice President Dr Jane Ansah was not invited. She was in Lilongwe. She was available. She was not invited. This is the second time in two months.
And yesterday, Your Excellency, your own Vice-President broke her silence.
In an interview with Zodiak Radio that is now all over Facebook and WhatsApp today, Vice President Dr Jane Ansah has spoken. She has said she is being sidelined. And she has said, and I quote her directly: There are people surrounding the President that are confusing him.
Your Excellency, listen to those words. There are people surrounding the President that are confusing him.
That is not an accusation from the opposition. That is not an accusation from me. That is an accusation from your own elected First Vice-President, a former judge of the High Court and Supreme Court, a woman who knows what evidence means.
She says she knows who they are. She says her relationship with you is cordial. She says it is the people around you who are doing this.
Your Excellency, this changes everything.
In July, we were debating a legal interpretation of Section 92(3). Today, we are debating the capture of the Presidency itself. If your own Vice-President says you are being confused by people around you, then who is actually presiding over Cabinet? Who is actually running the Government of Malawi? Is it the President elected by Malawians, or is it an unelected cabal around him?
Section 80(1) creates the office of President, First Vice-President and Second Vice-President. Section 92 creates Cabinet. The First Vice-President is a member of Cabinet by virtue of the Constitution. She does not need an invitation. She belongs there by law. To exclude her is unconstitutional. To exclude her twice while she is in Lilongwe is deliberate. To exclude her after she has publicly said you are being confused by people around you is reckless.
Your Excellency, you are a Professor of constitutional law. You taught this Constitution. On 4th October 2025, you stood before the Chief Justice, before all Malawians, and you swore the oath in Section 81(1) of the Constitution, word for word:
I, Arthur Peter Mutharika do solemnly swear that I will well and truly perform the functions of the high office of President of the Republic of Malawi, and that I will preserve and defend the Constitution, and that I will do right to all manner of people according to law without fear or favour, affection or illwill. So help me God.
Your Excellency, you swore to preserve and defend the Constitution. You swore to do right to all manner of people without illwill. You cannot claim to be confused about what the Constitution says.
If there are indeed people around you confusing you, as your Vice-President alleges, then you must act. If there are not, then you must tell Malawians why your elected Vice-President feels sidelined enough to go to Zodiak Radio to say so.
History is a cruel teacher. When a Vice-President starts speaking through the media because she cannot speak in Cabinet, a constitutional crisis has already begun.
I demanded three things in July. I demand them again today, with additions, because you have deepened the breach and your Vice-President has now confirmed it with her own mouth.
One, an immediate public acknowledgment that the exclusion of the First Vice-President from Cabinet yesterday violates the Constitution, and an immediate assurance that it will never happen again.
Two, a public directive that the First Vice-President shall henceforth attend all Cabinet meetings as of right, as required by the Constitution, unless she is outside the country or incapacitated.
Three, a formal legal opinion from the Attorney General, published in the Gazette, explaining under what law a member of Cabinet created by Section 92 can be excluded from Cabinet.
Four, the immediate release by the Secretary to the Cabinet of the attendance register and invitations for the Cabinet meetings of July and September.
Five, a clear statement from you, Your Excellency, addressing directly what your Vice-President said yesterday on Zodiak Radio. Who are the people surrounding the President that are confusing him? And what will you do about them?
Your Excellency, govern by the Constitution. Not by cabal. Not by grudge. Not by whisper.
On 28 July I wrote, history is watching. Today, 15 September 2026, your own Vice-President is watching, and she has spoken.
The Constitution is not a suggestion. It is the supreme law. Obey it.
Yours in defence of the Republic,
Mike Arnold Mbalale
Malawi’s Social and Political Philosopher
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