At least three mourners have been reported dead and dozens of others sustained varying degrees of injuries following a stampede that marred the unveiling ceremony of the former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga’s body after arriving in the country.
The bodies of the deceased were said to have been recovered by the emergency team following the stampede that occurred after policemen shot teargas at thousands of young mourners who gathered to honour the deceased opposition leader.
It was learnt that the continuous shots scared the crowd of mourners who accompanied the body from the Nairobi airport to Kasarani stadium, where the lying-in-state was held on Thursday.
The police were said to have resorted to shooting teargas canisters and live bullets as they tried to control a crowd of mourners gathered for a public viewing of the body of Odinga, an influential politician who died a day earlier in India.
The country’s head of police operations, Adamson Bungei, confirmed the shooting at the 60,000-capacity soccer stadium in the capital, Nairobi, where the viewing was to take place ahead of the funeral over the weekend.
Bungei, who described what transpired inside the stadium as a confrontation, said: “We have at least two deaths for now.”
It was not immediately clear what had ignited the violence, but the confrontation was said to have started brewing when thousands of mourners escorted Odinga’s body from the country’s main airport, many walking for 29 kilometers (18 miles) to the stadium.
Odinga, who died yesterday in India at the age of 80, collapsed during a morning walk; efforts to resuscitate him at a hospital in India’s Kerala state were unsuccessful.
As the chartered plane with Odinga’s body landed on Thursday morning in Nairobi, it was given a water cannon salute, with firetrucks creating an arch of water over the aircraft.
Tensions first spiked during a planned ceremonial reception by close family and top leaders at the airport as mourners demanded to view the body. Later, crowds walked alongside the military vehicle carrying Odinga from the runway while waving twigs.
At the stadium, tensions rose when a crowd surged and tried to breach a pavilion where the casket was placed, prompting police to fire live bullets and tear gas.
Mourners fled toward the stadium gates, and a stampede erupted, leaving an unknown number of people injured. Meanwhile, President William Ruto, members of the Odinga family, and other dignitaries at the stadium remained locked inside a room for safety.
After calm returned, the public viewing took place hours later outside the stadium gates.
Odinga was a respected and significant figure in Kenya, a veteran politician lauded by many for his fight for democracy.
“We are in mourning as a country. We loved Baba so much; he was the defender of the people,” said Beatrice Adala, one of the mourners at the airport. Like many, she called Odinga “Baba,” a Kiswahili honorific reserved for a beloved father figure.
Odinga will be given a state funeral on Sunday at his rural home of Bondo, in western Kenya.
According to his family, he had requested to be buried quickly, ideally within 72 hours, which is unusual for popular leaders in this East African country.
Friday has been declared a public holiday, and Kenyans are expected to gather at a different soccer stadium in Nairobi for a state funeral service. Another public viewing will be held on Saturday in the western county of Kisumu, close to Odinga’s rural home.
Ruto, who won the 2022 election against Odinga but later signed a political pact with him to appoint opposition members to the Cabinet, mourned him as “a patriot of uncommon courage, a pan-Africanist, a unifier who sought peace and unity above power and self-gain.” The president also declared seven days of national mourning for Odinga.
Odinga ran for Kenya’s presidency five times over three decades — sometimes with enough support that many believed he might win.
Although Odinga never succeeded at becoming president, for many he was a revered figure and statesman whose activism helped steer Kenya into a vibrant multiparty democracy.
He came close to taking the presidency in 2007, when he narrowly lost to incumbent Mwai Kibaki in a disputed election marred by ethnic violence.
Odinga then served as prime minister from 2008 to 2013 in a unity government put together with the mediation of the international community.
In 2017, a court nullified the presidential election — a first in Africa — after Odinga challenged it, but he decided to boycott the subsequent repeat vote, asserting it wouldn’t be credible without reforms.
