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By ; Mike Anorld Mbalale
The issue is simple. On Monday, President Arthur Peter Mutharika was in Blantyre. In Lilongwe, Cabinet sat. The First Vice-President, Dr Jane Ansah, was available. Yet Cabinet was chaired by Second Vice-President Enoch Chihana.
Dedza Kasina MP Joshua Malango was right to ask the question under Standing Order 69. He asked for the legal basis. That is Parliament’s job.
Speaker Sameer Suleman was wrong to dismiss it as an “internal government issue”. There is nothing “internal” about the Constitution. The Constitution belongs to 21 million Malawians. To call a constitutional question “administrative” is to tell Malawians that the Executive answers to no one. That is dangerous.
Let us go to the law and stop pretending there is ambiguity.
Section 92(3) is clear. It states:
Cabinet meetings shall be presided over:
a) by the President;
b) or in the temporary absence of the President, by the First Vice-President;
c) or in the temporary absence of both the President and First Vice-President, by the Second Vice-President.
Read it slowly. “Shall” means must. The order is automatic. It is not optional. It is not subject to presidential preference.
Section 80(6) and 80(7) cannot override this. The President assigns duties to VPs, yes. But he cannot assign in violation of a specific constitutional command. A general power cannot defeat a specific rule. To argue otherwise is to say the President can rewrite the Constitution by memo. He cannot.
What happened on Monday was therefore a direct breach of Section 92(3). Full stop.
Calling it “convention” is cowardly. This is not convention. This is black letter law. When you bypass the First Vice-President who is present and available, you do violence to the Constitution. You also create a dangerous precedent: that Cabinet decisions can be made outside the legal order set by the supreme law.
Age and health are irrelevant here. Section 80(4) provides the process for incapacity. It was not triggered. We proceed on the basis that the President is fit. But being fit does not give him license to ignore the Constitution. Being a trained lawyer makes this worse, not better.
Here is what must happen now:
- The Executive must admit the error. It must state publicly that Section 92(3) was violated and that going forward, the constitutional order will be respected. No excuses.
- Parliament must do its job. The Speaker must recall the Minister of Justice to explain on the floor, on record. Dismissing questions does not protect government. It exposes it.
- The Attorney General must give an opinion. Not a political statement. A legal opinion rooted in the text of Section 92(3).
This is bigger than Dr Ansah. Bigger than Rt Hon Chihana. Bigger than President Mutharika.
This is about whether Malawi in 2026 will be a nation of laws or a nation of whims. Whether Cabinet authority flows from the Constitution, or from whoever is in favor that week.
Malawians are tired of constitutional impunity done in quiet rooms. If you want to change the order in 92(3), go to Parliament and amend it. Until then, obey it.
The law is known. The law was disobeyed. The law must now be upheld.
Anything less is a betrayal of the oath we all swore to the Constitution.
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