By Vincent Gunde
President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera on Friday visited Dowa boma during his whistle-stops campaign tour wooing registers voters to vote for him on the 16th September, 2025 elections promising the people that he will build a new Dowa District to replace the old hospital.
President Dr. Chakwera said the district cannot continue to have a District Hospital which is in dilapidated state of affairs saying the population from the time the hospital was constructed in 1931 to date, has increased and is too much for the hospital to provide the necessary service delivery.
He said the land for the construction of the District Hospital was identified and what is remaining is to construct the hospital appealing to the registered voters in the district that during the June, 2020 elections, Dowa gave Chakwera 98 percent and this time around, it will be 100 percent.
A Malawi Congress Party (MCP) diehard of Mvera in Dowa district Mr. Rodgers Kamphangala has questioned MCP politicians in the district that for how many times the District Hospital would be constructed on paper?
Kamphangala recalled that in 1997 former President Dr. Bakili Muluzi laid a foundation stone for the new Dowa District Hospital at the Malawi Red Cross Society premises claiming that the Red Cross extended its area and there are some plots allocated to the residents.
He said in 2015 during the reign of the DPP and Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, the same promise was made but looking at what happened at the site where former President Dr. Bakili Muluzi laid a foundation stone was occupied by buildings, the site was changed.
The MCP diehard said Senior Chief Msakambewa offered a land for the District Hospital at Dzaleka Refugee Camp but Councilor Martin Luka Phiri who is contesting for a parliamentary seat for Dowa Central East Constituency protested heavily that doing this will be a double punishment to the people of Matekenya in the district.
Luka said the people of Matekenya, the hard to reach area of the district travels long distances to access medical treatment and other services to the Dowa boma and constructing a hospital at Dzaleka Camp, the very same people will be forced to travel another long distance.
Kamphangala said the Friends of Dowa led by the late Mr. Boxer Mnjale joined Luka Phiri in protesting for the hospital to be constructed at Dzaleka but rather to go back at the site where Dr. Bakili Muluzi laid a foundation stone within the Dowa boma itself.
“Money meant for the construction of Dowa District Hospital was diverted to Mponela Rural Hospital, politics played its part,” he said.
He has appealed to President Chakwera that if indeed he is promising the people of Dowa in good faith of a new District Hospital, a place is readily available where Dr. Bakili Muluzi laid a foundation stone for easy reach by the people of Matekenya and Nalunga.
Kamphangala has finally advised Martin Luka Phiri to meet President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera on one-on one meeting to tell him the whole truth of the Dowa District Hospital for the people of Dowa not to be used as a ladder by politicians to advance their political agendas.
