Update 9:22
President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a seven-day national mourning in honour of the late Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli.
Update 8:58
ODM leader Raila Odinga on Thursday, March 18, eulogised late Tanzanian President John Magufuli as a close friend who stood by him and his family.
"It is with deep sadness that I have learned of the passing of my friend, President Magufuli. He and his family have been close friends for a long time.
"He's been by my side at my most difficult and painful moments. My condolences to his family and the people of Tanzania," Odinga wrote on Twitter.
Update 8:16am:
Tanzania opposition leader Tundu Lissu has spoken out following the death of president John Magufuli.
In an interview, Lissu stated that he expected that the late president would die since March 7, 2021, when he first tweeted about his ill health.
"The only thing that surprises me is that they continue to lie, even now that he is dead, his government continues to lie. Magufuli died of corona," Lissu told KTN News.
Tanzania president John Pombe Magufuli has passed on at the age of 61.
Magufuli's death was announced by Tanzanian Vice President Samia Hassan Suluhu after weeks of speculation about his whereabouts.
Magufuli last appeared in public on February 27, 2021.
The cause of death was listed as a heart disease and occurred at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute in Tanzania where he had been admitted since March 6, 2021.
The Tanzanian government did not address widely circulated reports claiming the fallen president had contracted Covid-19.
The Tanzanian strongman, who also had an underlying heart condition, shocked the world with his refusal to acknowledge the Covid-19 pandemic.
Last week, Tanzania's opposition leader Tindu Lissu claimed that Magufuli was receiving treatment at a hospital in Nairobi.
A day later, he would claim that Magufuli had been transferred to India from Kenya for specialised treatment.
He alleged that the president had been flown to India to avoid embarrassment from Kenyans on social media.
"Kenyans do not want the embarrassment if the worst happens in Kenya. His Covid denialism is in tatters, his prayers over science folly has turned into a deadly boomerang!" Lissu tweeted.
After months of denying the existent of Covid-19 in Tanzania and ignoring precautionary measures, Magufuli, during his last public meeting in the Country, admitted that Covid-19 was spreading in Tanzania, but insisted on prayer and traditional medicine as the definite cure.
Reports indicate that a number of top Tanzanian officials have died of Covid-19 with the Catholic Church stating that priests and nuns had died from the disease.
