Senator James Orengo and financier Jimi Wanjigi planned to attend opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s burial.

But officials said the pair failed to present a court order overturning an existing suspension of their passports.

Both men support Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who named himself “the people’s president” last month.

There is growing concern that the government is ignoring civil liberties in response to the mock inauguration of Mr Odinga.

Unlike Mr Orengo and Mr Wanjigi, Mr Odinga was allowed to fly to Zimbabwe, without any difficulties, for the burial of Mr Tsvangirai, his long-time friend.

The Zimbabwean politician died of colon cancer on 14 February, and thousands of people are expected to attend his interment in his home village of Buhera.

Kenyan immigration officials had held Mr Orengo and Mr Wanjigi at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport overnight on Monday after they failed to present a court order authorising them to fly.

“When the two arrived at the airport, they were requested to avail copies of the said court orders but they had none,” the director of immigration services said. “Instead, they showed some writings on their phones purporting to be court orders.”

On Tuesday, Mr Kihalangwa tweeted that the court orders had finally arrived and the men had been allowed to travel.

Mr Orengo has disputed Mr Kihalangwa’s timeline, saying that immigration officials received the court order on Monday night.

He and Mr Wanjigi are due to leave for Zimbabwe later on Tuesday.

In recent weeks, the Kenyan government has been cracking down on supporters of Mr Odinga.

Earlier this month they deported his close aide Miguna Miguna, saying that he did not hold a Kenyan passport.

The government also took three television stations off air ahead of Mr Odinga’s mock swearing-in, and kept the channels suspended in defiance of a court order overturning the ban.

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Source: BBC

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A memorial service for Tsvangirai was held in a packed church in the capital Harare, while outside hundreds of supporters of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) gathered.

Tsvangirai died in hospital in South Africa on 15 February at the age of 65.

He will be buried in his home village of Buhera on Tuesday.

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.

The new president, who took over following the military ousting of Mr Mugabe in November, called for “fair, free and credible” elections, which are due to take place this year.

Tsvangirai, the fiercest opponent of Zanu-PF rule, had led the opposition MDC since its formation in 1999.

He gained the most votes in the first round of the presidential election in 2008, but pulled out of the second round after a sharp increase in violence directed at the opposition. Tsvangirai himself was beaten up and jailed.

As a senior Zanu-PF figure, Mr Mnangagwa has been accused of co-ordinating state intimidation of the opposition at the time, though he has not commented on the allegations.

Following an international outcry over allegations of vote-rigging, Tsvangirai shared power as prime minister with Mr Mugabe. In 2013, he ran again against him but lost decisively.

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Source: BBC

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Mr Tsvangirai, 65, a former prime minister, had reportedly been suffering from colon cancer.

“He died this evening. The family communicated this to me,” MDC vice president Elias Mudzuri told Reuters.

Mr Tsvangirai’s career was marked by a long political struggle against former President Robert Mugabe.

He had been beaten and imprisoned numerous times.

Mr Tsvangirai founded the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) in 2000, repeatedly challenging Mr Mugabe during the ex-president’s long grip on power.

In the 2008 election, Mr Tsvangirai gained the most votes in the first round but not enough to win outright.

Before the second round of voting, Mr Mugabe’s security forces carried out a campaign of violence against opposition supporters, and Mr Tsvangirai withdrew.

Mr Mugabe was declared the winner, but an international outcry over allegations of violence and vote-rigging led to a power sharing agreement in which Mr Tsvangirai would serve as prime minister.

Mr Tsvangirai ran against Mr Mugabe again in 2013 but lost by a landslide.

The MDC is said to be divided over who should lead it into elections later this year against the governing Zanu-PF party, led by Mr Mugabe’s successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mr Tsvangirai’s illness was said to have divided the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), with some party officials reportedly jockeying to succeed the former trade union activist.

He had been in and out of hospital since June, receiving treatment in a Johannesburg hospital for cancer. He returned to the hospital early last month.

Reports early in February indicated that Mr Tsvangirai’s health had deteriorated rapidly.

He had lost appetite and had difficulty eating or swallowing fluids, sources said. Mr Tsvangirai also reportedly had breathing problems.

Meanwhile, an MDC party source was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that Mr Tsvangirai “is critically ill and we should brace for the worst”.

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Source: BBC

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