HARARE -- Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga will be guest of honour at a key congress of the MDC-T party of his Zimbabwean counterpart Morgan Tsvangirai scheduled for the end of the month.

“Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga is expected to be the guest of honour at the congress. Other political parties from across Africa, international socialist and labour organisations are expected to attend,”? MDC-T ?spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told journalists in Harare on Thursday.

The MDC-T congress at which Tsvangirai is expected to be reconfirmed leader is scheduled for April 30 to the 1st of May.

This will be the first time that Odinga will be visiting Zimbabwe since he became Prime Minister. ?

Odinga, a fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe, was Kenya’s main opposition leader before agreeing to join President Mwai Kibaki in unity government formed in April 2008 to end electoral violence following contested election and that killed 1 500 and left 600,000 others displaced.

It was a scenario that was to be repeated in Zimbabwe although at a somewhat lesser scale when Mugabe lost a first round presidential vote to then opposition leader Tsvangirai, but the veteran President’s military allies launched an unprecedented orgy of violence in a bid to sway the vote in the decisive second round run-off poll.   

The army-led violence that killed at least 200 MDC supporters and displaced thousands of others saw Tsvangirai quitting the run-off election, leaving Mugabe to win uncontested.

But the veteran President’s blood-soaked victory was rejected by the international community including some of his African allies forcing him to agree to form a power-sharing government with Tsvangirai and Deputy Primer Minister Arthur Mutambara. 

By Staff reporter and agencies