Martha Mzomera Ngwira

Martha Mzomera Ngwira is Malawi’s Deputy Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, appointed on 30 October 2025. She is also the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Deputy Chief Whip in Parliament. The electoral commission lists her as Martha Munthali, and news reports also call her Martha Munthali-Ngwira.

She first won Mzimba Hora in 2019, standing for the DPP in place of her husband, former MP Christopher Ngwira, who could not stand that year because the courts had declared him bankrupt. She was Deputy Minister of Education in Peter Mutharika’s first government and is a member of the Malawi Parliamentary Women’s Caucus.

Martha Mzomera Ngwira is the Member of Parliament for Mzimba Hora constituency in Mzimba district, in Malawi’s Northern Region. In the 16 September 2025 general election Ngwira won the seat with 6,486 votes (34.7% of valid votes), ahead of Henri Mumba (MCP) with 6,092. 7 candidates stood.

Mumba challenged the result. On 25 November 2025 High Court judge Thomson Ligowe ruled that she was not duly elected, finding that DPP supporters had handed cash to voters at two polling stations. On 1 December 2025 the Supreme Court of Appeal suspended that ruling while it hears her appeal, so she remains the MP and a by-election planned for 17 March 2026 did not go ahead. The appeal was heard in January 2026 and judgment was still awaited in October 2026.