Nairobi — Thousands of mourners briefly stormed Nairobi’s international airport on Thursday, interrupting a ceremony for the body of veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, with crowds also flooding nearby roads and trying to breach parliament.
Odinga, a major figure for decades in Kenyan politics who was once a political prisoner and ran unsuccessfully for president five times, died on Wednesday aged 80 in India, where he had been receiving medical treatment.
With Odinga’s supporters taking to the streets in his honour, President William Ruto and other officials went to the airport to receive his body with military honours.
But as the coffin was being removed from the plane’s cargo, mourners waving twigs and flags — some on motorbikes — overran the airside, interrupting part of the ceremony, according to a Reuters witness and video footage.
The crowd later backed away from the plane, but the chaos prompted a two-hour suspension of airport operations.
Elsewhere, some Odinga supporters climbed on the gates of parliament, where the government had scheduled a public viewing of his body. The venue for that was changed to a Nairobi sports stadium, his party said.
Farewell
Thousands of people made their way on foot and on motorbikes to the stadium for a final farewell to Odinga, who was known to his supporters as “Baba” (“father” in Swahili).
The mourners, many of whom were not yet born in 1991 when Kenya became a multiparty democracy, paid tribute to Odinga’s efforts as a pro-democracy activist.
“He fought tirelessly for multiparty democracy, and we are enjoying those freedoms today because of his struggle,” university student Felix Ambani Uneck told Reuters.
Khahija Dennis, 30, said he was glad to take part in the public viewing.
“It means more people, especially us who followed him from a distance, can finally say goodbye to Baba in a place that represents the people he loved,” he said.
Tensions rose at one point about the stadium when a government vehicle struck a mourner, leading some mourners to throw stones in protest before calm returned.
Though mainly known as an opposition figure, Odinga became prime minister in 2008 and also struck a political pact with Ruto last year in a career of shifting alliances.
He commanded passionate devotion among supporters, especially in his Luo tribe based in western Kenya, many of whom believe he was cheated of the presidency by electoral fraud.
Reuters
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