Callista ‘you will never walk alone’ says Peter Mutharika
Brother to late president Bingu wa Mutharika , Professor Peter Mutharika has assured widowed former first lady Callista Mutharika that she “will never walk alone” as he will be there to comfort her.
Callista married Mutharika in 2010, after the late president’s first wife, Ethel, died of cancer in 2007.
A former legislator, Callista was a senior member of Mutharika’s governing Democratic Progressive Party. In 2004, she was appointed tourism minister in Mutharika’s first cabinet.
She was widowed from her first marriage.
In his eulogy at the funeral of late president in Thyolo on Monday, Peter said to Callista: “You will never walk alone. I can assure you that.”
His statement attracted murmurs from the crowd of mourners saying “Chokolo” – a culture of inheriting a brother’s wife.
Mutharika anointed his brother to inherit power and the DPP held a coronation for his leadership of the party.
Peter said with Bingu, they “ grew up together as twins.”
In her eulogy, President Joyce Banda asked Peter to “look after Callista.”
He also asked Peter Mutharika to assume the role of a father to the orphaned children.
“We are hoping you will continue to play the role of father to these children as well,” she said.
Mutharika’s death has met with mixed reactions, as many people in the impoverished Malawi accused him of poor economic policies and suppression of basic freedoms in his second term which lead to major clashes with donors.
