Peter Mutharika, President of Malawi
Arthur Peter Mutharika (born 18 July 1940) is a Malawian politician, lawyer, and academic who has served as the seventh president of Malawi since 2025, previously holding the same office from 2014 to 2020. A long-time member and current leader of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), he is the younger brother of former president Bingu wa Mutharika.
Born in Thyolo District, Mutharika studied law at the University of London (LLB, 1965) and later earned his LLM (1966) and JSD (1968) from Yale University. He was admitted to the Tanzanian Bar in 1971 and pursued a distinguished academic career, teaching law at universities in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including nearly four decades at Washington University in St. Louis. His scholarly work focused on international economic law, comparative constitutional law, and international justice.
Mutharika entered Malawian politics in 2009, serving in multiple cabinet positions such as Minister of Justice, Minister of Education, and Minister of Foreign Affairs under his brother’s administration. Following Bingu wa Mutharika’s death in 2012, he became DPP leader and won the 2014 presidential election, defeating Joyce Banda and Lazarus Chakwera. His first term saw moderate economic growth and infrastructure expansion, though marred by corruption scandals, power shortages, and social unrest. His disputed 2019 re-election was annulled by Malawi’s Constitutional Court in 2020, and he lost the rerun to Lazarus Chakwera.
After leaving office, Mutharika faced corruption investigations and a temporary freeze of his bank accounts. He re-entered the political scene in 2024, announcing his candidacy for the 2025 election, which he won with nearly 57% of the vote, returning to power at age 85.
In his second presidency, Mutharika has announced policies including free primary and secondary education, large-scale maize imports to address food insecurity, and a ban on raw mineral exports to boost local value creation.
Mutharika is married to Gertrude Maseko, a former Member of Parliament. He has three children from his first marriage to the late Christophine Mutharika. A Presbyterian by faith, he remains one of the world’s oldest serving heads of state.
His leadership has drawn both praise for experience and criticism for regional favoritism, alleged corruption, and authoritarian tendencies, particularly regarding relocation of government institutions and his party’s dominance in the south.
Lazarus Chakwera, Former President of Malawi (elected on Jun 23, 2020 with 59.3%)
Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera (born 5 April 1955) is a Malawian theologian and politician who has served as President of Malawi since June 2020.[1] In addition to the Presidency, he also gave himself a cabinet portfolio as Minister of Defence. He has been leader of the Malawi Congress Party since 2013,[2] and was previously Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly following highly controversial elections held on 21 May 2019 which were overturned by the Constitutional Court. He was President of the Malawi Assemblies of God from 1989 to 14 May 2013.
Lazarus Chakwera was born in Lilongwe, the current capital of Malawi, on 5 April 1955[3] when the country was still under British colonial rule.[4] His family were subsistence farmers in the city’s outskirts.[5] He is married to Monica and together, they have four children and grandchildren.
Peter Mutharika, Former President of Malawi
Arthur Peter Mutharika (born 18 July 1940) is a Malawian politician, educator and lawyer who has been President of Malawi since 31 May 2014. Mutharika has worked globally in the field of international justice. He is an expert on international economic law, international law and comparative constitutional law. He informally served as an adviser to his older brother, President Bingu wa Mutharika, on issues of foreign and domestic policy from the onset of his election campaign until the President’s death on 5 April 2012.
He has also held positions as Minister of Justice and later as Minister for Education, Science and Technology. Mutharika also served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2012. He was charged to help bridge relations between Malawi and the United Kingdom due to the deterioration of public diplomacy between the two nations after the Cochrane-Dyet controversy. Standing as the candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Peter Mutharika was elected as President of Malawi in the 2014 election.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mutharika
Bingu wa Mutharika, Former President of Malawi (Died on Apr 7, 2012. Vice President Joyce Banda becomes next President)
His Excellency, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika comes from Kamoto Village in Thyolo, southern Malawi. He officially became the President of the Republic of Malawi on May 24, 2004.
He holds a PhD in Development Economics from the Pacific Western University, Los Angeles, USA. He also has a Masters Degree in Economics and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the University of Delhi, India.A distinguished former diplomat, Dr. Mutharika worked, from 1990 – 1997, as Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) formerly Preferential Trade Area (PTA).
As an authority on regional institution building, Dr. Mutharika spearheaded the establishment of several regional economic organizations such as the Association of African Central Banks (AACB), Conference of African Ministers of Finance, African Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (AFCCI), and Eastern and Southern Africa Business Organisation (ESABO).
Before becoming Secretary General of COMESA, President Mutharika worked for the United Nations where he rose to the position of Director for Trade and Development Finance, responsible for 53 African countries.
His political history dates back to the early days of Malawi’s Independence. He was one of the people who opposed the authoritarian rule of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Malawi’s first Head of State. He also opposed the introduction, by the Banda administration, of racial discrimination and salary differentiation based on race in the civil service. This inevitably forced him to flee the country for Zambia.
Dr. Mutharika is married to Ethel, daughter of a medical assistant, Dunnet Disi of Disi Village in the area of chief Kuntumaji in Zomba. He has four children.
He is a devout catholic. His hobbies include playing golf, tennis, swimming, photography, writing books, fishing and listening to soft music.
