Raila in Zimbabwe to Attend Burial of Opposition Icon Morgan Tsvangirai

National Super Alliance (Nasa) leader Raila Odinga on Monday jetted out of the country to attend the burial of Zimbabwe’s opposition icon Morgan Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai, a close friend of Odinga passed away last Wednesday after a long battle with colon cancer.

In a statement to the press, Raila's spokesman Dennis Onyango said the Nasa chief left Nairobi for Harare at 1pm on Monday. “Odinga will then travel to Buhera, some 300 kilometres from Harare where the Movement for Democratic Change leader will be laid to rest on Thursday,” read the statement.

Odinga and Tsangirai reportedly met in 1993 when the Kenyan opposition leader led an International Republican Institute team to train political parties in Zimbabwe for the multi-party elections that were approaching then. The two then became great friends and Tsvangirai has in the past visited Kenya several times, both on family and political reasons. He also attended the burial Fidel Odinga, Raila's first born son, who died in 2015. The former Zimbabwe's Prime Minister was also present when Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party endorsed Raila's presidential bid ahead of 2013 general elections.

“Morgan dared to dream of democracy, freedom and justice for his country and his people despite the firm hands of dictatorship that held sway,” Raila said in a message of condolences to family and friends of Tsvangirai.

He will be laid to rest in Buhera on Tuesday.

This is the first time Odinga is leaving the country since his controversial mock swearing in as people's president on January 30th.