Ken Lipenga

After working as a management trainee at the Blantyre Printing and Publishing Company, Lipenga joined the faculty of the University of Malawi at Chancellor College as an Assistant Lecturer in English.[1] He left to complete his PhD in Canada and returned home to teach at Chancellor College. In 1986 he returned to Blantyre Printing and Publishing Company as General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of Blantyre Newspapers Ltd.[1] In 1992 Lipenga was dismissed from his job following a series of provocative articles under his column, Off the Cuff.[1] The article, "Of Gallileo as Dissident," metaphorically criticized one-party rule under the Kamuzu Banda regime and sided with those calling for multi-party rule. Lipenga moved to Nkolokosa and worked as a Reuters and Radio Netherlands correspondent.[1]

After meeting Aleke Banda, who had just been released from political detention, he joined a group that sympathized with the UDF.[1] When Banda and family decided to establish a newspaper in 1993, "the Nation", Lipenga became the founding Editor-In-Chief. He resigned from the Nation in 1995 upon being appointed Special Assistant to the then President, Bakili Muluzi.[1]

Lipenga became MP for Phalombe East in 1997.[1] From 2005–2006 Minister of Labour & Vocational Training.[6] Then From 2006–2008 he was the Deputy Minister of Finance.[6] Since 2008 he has been serving the current Minister of Economic Planning and Development in the DPP ruled cabinet.[2] He was then Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture until 2011, when he was appointed as Minister of Finance. This was a controversial and challenging position since Malawi was undergoing political discontent that led to the July 20th, 2011 Malawian protests due to economic policies under the Bingu wa Mutharika Administration.