ZIMBABWE’S President Robert Mugabe has defended his extensive foreign travel despite economic troubles at home which have caused his trips to be criticised as unnecessary. Mugabe told state media before he left for Nairobi, Kenya on Sunday that the outcry over his trips and claims that they were draining millions of dollars from the cash-strapped treasury are “purely nonsensical”. “There is nothing sinister about my trips because even elsewhere, presidents also undertake them and you can look at the [Nelson] Mandelas and the [Tony] Blairs. “They all do the same and I do not know why there should be an outcry,” said Mugabe who has already visited Ghana, China, Iran, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates in the space of about a month.