Ex-Kenyan leader Raila Odinga buried after days of memorial events
Former Kenyan prime minister and longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga was buried in the west of the country after a service attended by thousands on Sunday.
“Now Baba is finally home,” said his son, Raila Odinga junior, next to his father’s coffin, draped in the Kenyan flag.
The funeral concluded days of commemorations that at times led to chaos, with at least five mourners dying at other events and dozens more injured during a public viewing Saturday.
Odinga died on Wednesday at the age of 80 in an Indian hospital.
He became prime minister after the bloody and disputed 2007 elections and was the main opposition leader for many years, losing five presidential campaigns, most recently three years ago.
He maintains a devotional clientele in the west of the country. Former US President Barack Obama, whose Kenyan family hails from the same region, called Odinga a “true champion of democracy”.
Politicians, relatives and crowds of his supporters waved Kenyan flags and held up his photo as they gathered at the memorial ceremony, held at a university in Bondo, on Sunday.
“Even in the grave, he remains our hero,” one mourner told AFP.
Military personnel carried Odinga’s coffin to the front, where a choir sang and speakers including Kenyan President William Ruto remembered him.
“His courage, vision and unwavering faith in our collective destiny will forever light our nation’s path,” Ruto said in a Facebook post about the event.
“His return to Bondo was not just a homecoming; it was the embrace of a grateful Republic bidding farewell to one of its greatest sons, a patriot who dedicated his life to the cause of justice, democracy and the enduring unity of our beloved Kenya.”
Odinga was buried nearby, on his late father’s property, where there is a family mausoleum.
Several commemorative events had already taken place, including a state funeral in Nairobi on Friday and a public viewing at a stadium in his hometown of Kisumu on Saturday.
At the screening, tens of thousands of people filed past his open casket, many shouting “we are orphans.”
At least three people were killed when police opened fire to disperse mourners, and dozens more were injured in the chaotic scenes that followed.
