Malawians woke up to yet another fuel price hike, with petrol now at K3,499 per litre and diesel at K3,500 per litre, according to the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA). The fuel price hike, set to take effect on October 1st, comes just days before Arthur Peter Mutharika’s swearing-in ceremony this Saturday, and it has already sparked heated debate over accountability and honesty in leadership.
DPP supporters and their allied tabloids rushed to claim that the fuel adjustment is Chakwera’s doing. Yet, the same DPP machinery celebrated maize price drops as Mutharika’s achievement and even the closure of NEEF offices for audit as Mutharika’s directive. If APM is now in charge of driving Chakwera out of State House and calling the shots on state institutions, how then can fuel price hikes still be pinned on the man already out of office? The contradiction exposes a dishonest narrative designed to shield the new regime from immediate accountability.
The truth is simple: DPP is now ruling. The rise in fuel prices falls squarely under their watch. And the consequences will be brutal. Fuel touches everything — from transport costs to market prices of food and basic goods. With inflation already biting, this hike will send prices soaring further. Ordinary Malawians who thought life would get better under Mutharika are about to feel the opposite — life will become unbearable.
It must also be remembered that former President Chakwera repeatedly resisted hiking fuel prices, heavily subsidising fuel despite immense international pressure. That decision ballooned government expenditure, yes, but it kept prices stable for Malawians struggling with the cost of living. Ironically, the same DPP-aligned media that shouted loudest about “K3 trillion waste” during Chakwera’s tenure now go silent on the fact that part of that figure was spent shielding Malawians from exactly this kind of pain.
If DPP truly believed Chakwera was behind this price hike, then logic demands they reverse it immediately. But they won’t, because the reality is clear: the global market has shifted, subsidies are gone, and Mutharika’s government has neither the will nor the honesty to protect Malawians.
Malawi is about to learn, painfully, that slogans and propaganda do not buy cheap fuel. And no amount of finger-pointing at Chakwera will change the fact that DPP now owns both the decisions and the consequences.
