Rumphi projects under microscope

Between November 2024 and April 2025, at least three women gave birth on the roadside while traveling to Mwazisi Health Centre in Rumphi District due to labour triggered by the bumpy, unforgiving road conditions.

These women, like many in the area, usually rely on Kamphenda Under-Five Clinic, which offers basic child healthcare services, limited maternal care and a dispensary that serves a catchment area of over 3,600 people.

The affected communities include Kaskombe, Makupe, Dimba, Bazuka, Kaseka and Tipokelere.

In response to the mounting healthcare challenges, the government initiated the construction of Kamphenda Health Centre back in 2013.

However, the project stalled at foundation level and remained dormant for years.

Momentum returned in 2023, when officials revisited the site and a new contractor was introduced in July 2024.

Progress has been registered, with the structure now at window level.

In his State of The Nation Address (Sona) to Parliament on February 14, 2025, President Lazarus Chakwera cited Kamphenda Health Centre and Mphompha Maternity Wing as some of the structures that were taking shape.

Chairperson for Kamphenda Village Development Committee (VDC) Topsy Nyirongo said they have observed that some activity has been taking place.

“We have seen real progress in the last three weeks of March and early April, when roofing started,” he said.

Wisdom Khonje, a health surveillance assistant based at Kamphenda, said the facilities would be lifesaving.

“The road from Kamphenda to Mwazisi Health Centre is about 15 kilometres and it’s 48 kilometres to Rumphi District Hospital. These are long, rough distances. Around 30 percent of women here deliver on the roadside due to delayed access and road conditions. It’s dangerous for both mother and child, and roadside deliveries also compromise infection control, including HIV prevention,” Khonje said.

Other projects that are set to transform Rumphi District include Bolero Mortuary, the Chikwawa–Bembe road stretch, and the construction of police and teachers’ houses.

In his Sona, President Chakwera mentioned 27 projects for Rumphi District—15 of them infrastructure-based and 12 targeting social and economic development.

We take a closer look at some of these projects.

Jones Chirambo of Nathan James Construction said they were, indeed, assigned to construct a mortuary at Bolero Community Hospital on February 6.

At the time of our visit in April, progress was being made, with the project at roofing level.

“So far, the works are at an advanced level. We are at roofing level and we are almost done with the walk-way and within 30 days we will be done. We only delayed a little from the time we were given the site to mobilise,” Chirambo said.

He said the construction work was for 120 days.

Another project the President mentioned in the Sona is the Rumphi-Nyika Road, particularly the stretch between Chikwawa and Bembe.

“We are constructing the Chikwawa to Bembe via Bolero Road, of which 18 km has already been tarred,” said Chakwera in his address.

When we toured the road, we found that about 4.5 kilometres of the stretch from Chikwawa to Chirambo Trading Centre was tarmacked.

Officials from Plem Construction Company said they were up to speed.

Rumphi West parliamentarian Yona Mkandawire said the 20-kilometre stretch, which is pegged at around K29 billion, was important to people.

Mkandawire said Plem Construction Company had shown that it had the capacity to complete the works on time.

“This is one of the most important roads in the country,” he said.

On his part, Paramount Chief Chikulamayembe said the road should not end at Bembe but should be taken all the way to Chitipa as that would help unlock the district’s tourism potential.

“We have constructed 90 housing units for the security agencies in the district, thus improving public safety,” said Chakwera in his February address.

When we visited one of the construction sites at Hewe Police Unit, we found that foundations had been put.

Supervisor of the project, who is renting near the police unit, said rains affected their work.

Mervis Gondwe, Area Development Committee Chairperson, said they hoped that the structures would be completed soon.

“We believe that once that is done, the area will be safer because most times police officers rent far from their workstation and other officers refuse to come here because of the housing issue,” she said.

Neighbouring Hewe Police Unit is a community day secondary school, namely Katowo, with an enrolment of 538 students.

Here, the government has constructed an 80-bed girls’ hostel which, according to one of the students Ireen Pinto, has reduced the time they were taking to travel from home to the school.

“We now have ample time to study. The hostel is well secured and our performance is improving gradually,” said Ireen, a soldier in the making.

Speaking of performance, deputy head teacher for the school, Wanangwa Mkandawire, said five students, two of them girls, have been selected to public universities.

This is one of the four hostels the government has constructed in the district.

In the Sona, Chakwera also said they had launched Jalira National Girls School to advance the cause of girls’ education in the country.

Form two student Tadala Werekhwe from Lilongwe said apart from being a state-of-the-art facility, the structure was also conducive for education.

“The facilities are very good, with adequate learning materials. It offers us an opportunity to do practical lessons at any desired time,” she said.

The school, which had an enrolment of 102 girls as of April, 2025, has facilities such as computer, science and music laboratories, a hostel and sporting grounds.

Through support from Peace Parks Foundation, the government is implementing a $4.4-million Thazima Gravity Piped Water Supply Scheme, which is designed to serve over 18,000 people.

We inspected the project and found that it is near completion.

This is in addition to the six water supply schemes under development through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

Rumphi District Commissioner Emmanuel Bulukutu said they also have irrigation schemes such as Chipofya, which will irrigate about 900 hectares, thereby reducing cases of food insecurity in the district.

Further, for a long time, human-animal conflict had haunted community members around Vwaza Wildlife and Game Reserve in Rumphi District.

Jaih Kanyondo, a resident of Lusani area, said the conflicts have drastically reduced owing to the construction of a 70-kilometre solar powered wire fence, a project that used over K1 billion.

The fence was constructed through funds from the German government and the European Union (EU) through Peace Parks Foundation under the Malawi-Zambia Transfrontier Conservation Area project.

Rumphi also wears a refreshened face as, in 2024, Chakwera opened a teachers’ training college (TTC), a few kilometres from the Boma. The TTC, a project which was commissioned in 2018, was opened along with two others in Mchinji and Chikwawa in the Central and Southern Region, respectively.

Speaking at the opening, Minister of Education Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima said the three TTCs were constructed to the tune of $34 million, 70 percent of which came from Badea, Saudi Fund for development and Opec Fund for international Development, with the Malawi Government funding the remainder.

According to the Rumphi District Commissioner Bulukutu, since 2021, the government, through the World Bank-funded Government to Enable Service Delivery, has received money, amounting to about K1.2 billion.

With the money, they have constructed Old Salawe Teachers Development Centre, Chiweta Extension Planning Area office, Livingstonia Police Unit, Junju girls’ hostel, maternity wing at Mphompha, a youth centre at the boma, Information Technology and Finance block at the council, among others.

“All these projects will surely help uplift the living standards of people in the district. I would like to thank the government particularly for increasing Constituency Development Fund allocations. This has helped a lot, in terms of areas to be reached with developmental projects. We believe that if this continues, we are assured that Rumphi is on the right track.

“I also wanted to say that, in the past three years, Rumphi has benefitted with about four big school projects such as Bale, Matunkha, Jalira and Chiyola, which gives our children an opportunity to access quality education,” he said.

From our investigations, progress has been made, particularly in education, water supply, and conservation efforts, but concerns over funding delay persist in Rumphi District.