DPP at War With Itself Over ‘Ayimanso Project’ as Credit Row Explodes

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is being torn apart by a bitter internal war over who truly launched President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika’s “Ayimanso Project” — the controversial campaign to return him to the presidency after his 2020 court-sanctioned defeat. What began as a grassroots digital movement has now become a toxic power struggle, exposing deep fault lines inside Malawi’s former ruling party. The earliest and most consistent voices pushing for Mutharika’s return were: These figures, operating when DPP was politically toxic, kept the fire burning for a comeback that many in the party were too afraid to openly support.

At the time, Mutharika himself had publicly stated he was retiring from active politics. The idea of him running again was widely seen as unrealistic, even embarrassing. But this small group refused to let the idea die.

They posted relentlessly.They mobilised online.They kept the conversation alive when the party elite hid. Fast-forward to today: with Mutharika’s return now politically viable, Honourable Chimwenwe Chipungu has emerged claiming thathewas the architect of the Ayimanso Project. Party loyalists who fought when it was politically dangerous are furious that someone who was silent during the storm now wants to wear the crown.

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To them, Chipungu is not a pioneer — he is a latecomer trying to hijack a movement he did not build. “The clouds are now clear. That’s why people are coming out now,” said one senior DPP insider.“But when it was risky, when supporting Mutharika was political suicide, Chipungu was nowhere.” At the centre of this storm stands Honourable Shadreck Namalomba, one of the very few DPP figures who publicly stood with Mutharika when doing so invited political punishment.

Namalomba was embarrassingly fired as Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) — widely seen as punishment for his loyalty to Mutharika at a time when the party was under siege. While others hid in comfort zones, Namalomba took the political bullets.

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