National Super Alliance principal Raila Odinga left the country on Monday afternoon for Harare Zimbabwe, to attend the burial of his political friend and Opposition chief Morgan Tsvangirai, ODM Communications Director Philip Etale said on Monday.
Mr Tsvangirai succumbed to colon cancer last week.
Mr Etale revealed to Pulselive.co.ke via text that it would be necessary for Mr Odinga to attend the burial of Mr Tsvangirai, whose burial, according to the son, is set for Tuesday, February 20. Mr Etale, however, failed to divulge more details on when the former Prime Minister would leave the country.
“Morgan was his close friend and it would be necessary for him to attend the funeral and give him his final respects as a fallen comrade in the struggle for a just, democratic and fair society,” Mr Etale said in a text message to Pulselive.co.ke.
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Early Monday, speculations were rife that the former Premier had left the county fro then burial of Zimbabwe’s opposition politics icon.
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This will be the first trip Raila Odinga after being sworn in as the ‘People President’.
It is also expected that Mr Odinga and his Namibia’s opposition counterpart and Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) leader McHenry Venaani will address mourners at 4 pm at the party’s headquarters at Harvest House.
Tsvangirai died on February 14 in South Africa after a long battle with colon cancer. His remains have already been flown back to Zimbabwe.
The late Tsvangirai, according to the local media reports which quoted his son, would be buried on Tuesday in his Buhera home in Zimbabwe.
Earlier, Mr Odinga mourned Mr Tsvangirai as a patriot who "dared to dream of democracy, freedom and justice for his country and his people despite the firm hands of dictatorship that held sway."
"Until his death Mr. Tsvangirai remained a source of inspiration to a generation of leaders across the continent for his courage in the face of monumental odds. His death leaves a gap in a country that still needs strong forces of change to return to the path of democracy," Mr Odinga said in a series of tweets after learning his death.
O Sunday, a memorial service for the late Tsvangirai was held in a packed church in the capital Harare, while outside hundreds of supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) gathered.
President Emerson Mnangagwa visited Tsvangirai's family to offer condolences ahead of the service.
"Let us all be brothers and sisters, and come together and mourn our former prime minister," he said after his visit.
"When we write the history of this country, we cannot leave out the participation and role that the former prime minister played in the effort to entrench democratic values in this country," Mr Mnangagwa added.
Mr Tsvangirai died in hospital in South Africa on 15 February at the age of 65.