K30 Billion for a Palace? Government Plays Hide-and-Seek as Mutharika Avoids Kamuzu Palace

So now we finally know why President Peter Mutharika is tucked away at Mtunthama State House: Kamuzu Palace, we are told, is “damaged.” Not just damaged — so damaged that even the Finance Minister himself, Joseph Mwanamvekha, cannot bring himself to utter how much the repairs will cost.

Convenient.

Instead, he hands Malawians the classic political shrug: “There are a lot of things which were damaged and need fixing.”

A statement that says absolutely everything and nothing at the same time.

And to make it even more dramatic, Mwanamvekha blames former president Lazarus Chakwera for leaving the place in ruins — as if Chakwera spent his evenings chipping walls and ripping out cables before moving out.

Meanwhile, State House spokesperson Cathy Maulidi also claims she “doesn’t know” how much taxpayers will cough up. Apparently, the people in charge of the most expensive residence in the country don’t have a clue what the renovations cost, when they will finish, or why the president can’t live there.

A whole State House project, and no one knows anything.

How refreshing.

Governance experts like Willie Kambwandira are right to smell smoke. A renovation that must not be priced, explained, or justified usually means one thing: the cost might knock citizens off their chairs.

And indeed, unconfirmed reports suggest the magic number: K30 billion.

Yes — billion, with a “B.”

That’s enough money to build several modern schools, fix a handful of crumbling hospitals, or at the very least improve the electricity system that keeps going down. Instead, it may be swallowed by a palace makeover whose details government is treating like a national security secret.

So while Malawians struggle with rising prices, blackouts, and a shrinking economy, their president is living comfortably elsewhere — waiting for a palace so expensive it might as well be plated in gold.

For now, all we know is this: The president is in Mtunthama. The palace is under “heavy renovations.”

And taxpayers are being asked to pay the bill without being told what they’re buying.

Everything else? Hidden behind curtains thicker than the ones they are probably replacing.

 

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