Rumphi MPs from four parties club together to fund mortuary repairs after govt fails to act

Four Members of Parliament from Rumphi District in northern Malawi have pooled K10.5 million of their own constituency funds to renovate the mortuary at Rumphi District Hospital, after months of breakdowns left the vast majority of its units out of action.

The initiative, led by Rumphi Central MP Dr Mathews Mtumbuka, comes after nine of the facility’s 12 mortuary units fell into disrepair, prompting mounting concern among hospital staff and grieving families alike.

Dr Mtumbuka was joined in the effort by fellow Rumphi MPs Jappie Mtuwa Mhango (Rumphi North), Florence Shapiro Khimbi (Rumphi East) and Adadawiza Jona Mkandawire (Rumphi West).

The four said they had been forced to act after repeated delays in official repairs left them with little choice but to intervene directly.

Mtumbuka told reporters he had raised the matter in Parliament with the Health Minister, Madalitso Baloyi, only to be advised that the MPs should draw on their own Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocations to carry out the work themselves.

The MP was candid in his criticism of the wider system that led to that outcome, arguing that essential hospital infrastructure ought not to depend on individual legislators lobbying for action or personally underwriting repairs.

“Authorities should be addressing such needs proactively,” he said, suggesting that the mortuary’s prolonged breakdown had come to symbolise the wider cost of sluggish government responses to basic public service failures.

The cross-party nature of the initiative — spanning MPs from different political affiliations — drew praise from senior figures in government.

Justice Minister Charles Mhango welcomed the collaboration, saying it demonstrated that legislators were capable of setting aside partisan differences when their constituents faced urgent needs.

Mhango contributed K2.5 million saying: “Give me the account details I will transfer the money right now.”

First Deputy Speaker Victor Musowa went further, urging other MPs elsewhere in the country to consider similar joint action in cases where public services were under comparable strain.

The episode raises broader questions about the state of health infrastructure funding in Malawi, and whether reliance on ad hoc, MP-led interventions is becoming an informal substitute for routine government maintenance of critical facilities.

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