[Roy Bennet (left) with Morgan Tsvangirai in a past event. He died in a helicopter crash. Photo/telegraph.co.uk]
Roy Bennet, a fierce critic of deposed Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe and an Ex- Deputy Agriculture in a shaky MDC- ZANU-PF coalition has died.
Bennet, 60, who also served as Treasurer of the Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC, is said to have been among five people who perished in a helicopter crash on Thursday in some remote area of US state of New Mexico.
Also killed along him was his wife Heather with the immediate mission of their trip to US remaining anonymous.
In 2008, Bennet and Tsvangirai were part of Raila Odinga's foreign advisers when Kenya was in flames over divisive 2007 elections.
Years later in 2012, when Raila's ODM was nominating presidential candidate ahead of 2013 elections, Bennet was among the MDC officials present in Kasarani function.
So close that he was with Raila, that the two yet again met in South Africa in 2011 at a forum on food security in Africa.
Until his death, Bennet, a dominant human rights activist, had taken political asylum in neighbouring South Africa due to his irreconcilable differences with Mugabe.