Dr. Ken Lipenga was born on Valentine's Day 1952 at the foot of the legendary Michesi Mountain in Chiringa, Phalombe, southern Malawi. He grew up facing Mt. Michesi, and frequently climbing the mountain with his carpenter-father in search of timber wood, and with his fellow village boys in search of wild fruit. This explains why he makes frequent reference to Malawian mountain myths, his favorite yarn being the one that says that if you are of good heart and pure soul you do not need to carry any food or water provisions when you climb Mt. Michesi or Mt. Mulanje, for at the slightest sign of hunger or thirst on your part, food and drink are served to you right there in the wilderness by invisible hosts on a well-laid out table, those serving you being the spirits of the ancestors, who reside in the higher reaches of these mountains.
Lipenga did his early schooling at Nazombe Primary School and then went to Mulanje Day Secondary School.From Mulanje, Lipenga entered the University of Malawi, enrolling at Soche Hill College in 1972 and graduating with a B.Ed (Distinction) in 1976. He majored in English and History as well as Education. After working briefly 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.
In 1981, Lipenga won a Graduate Assistantship to study for Ph.D in English Literature at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. He graduated in 1984 and returned home to continue with his teaching work at Chancellor College.
In 1986, Lipenga bid a temporary farewell to academia and entered the private sector by returning to Blantyre Printing and Publishing Company, this time as General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of Blantyre Newspapers Ltd. These were politically difficult times in Malawi, and no one was surprised when in 1992 Lipenga was dismissed from his job following a series of provocative articles under his "Off the Cuff" column. The straw that broke the camel's back was an article titled "Of Gallileo as Dissident," published in December 1992, in which, to the annoyance of his employers, he used metaphor and allegory to strongly criticise the one-party regime and side with those who were agitating for change to multiparty.
Unceremoniously evicted from the company house to Nancholi, Lipenga settled down in a house in Nkolokosa and took up a job as Reuters and Radio Netherlands correspondent. Not long after that Lipenga met Aleke Banda, who had just been released from political detention and was putting together a task force of intellectuals to help with the UDF cause. The two formed a friendship which has proved enduring.
When Aleke and family decided to establish a newspaper in 1993, Lipenga proved a handy partner and became the founding Editor –In – Chief. He resigned from the Nation in 1995 upon being appointed Special Assistant to the then President, Bakili Muluzi.
When the MP for Phalombe East died in 1997, the people of that constituency summoned Lipenga and asked him to stand in the following by-elections. He won and found himself a politician, fully realizing that he had now joined the class that he had spent much his previous time poking fun at.
Lipenga is known by most people as a politician and a writer, but he is also a very keen angler, photographer and mountain climber. He is not completely de-linked from academia, as he spends whatever time he can spare doing research on the Lomwe language.
Lipenga is married to Stella, who shares his passion for angling.
The Minister's Speech
The Inauguration of Channel For All Nations (C.A.N) Radio Station - November 6, 2004.