Last ceremony follows days of memorial occasions that left 5 individuals useless and lots of injured throughout stampedes.
Revealed On 19 Oct 2025
Kenyans are saying a ultimate farewell to esteemed opposition chief Raila Odinga, days after a number of people were killed when mourners gathered to pay their respects within the capital Nairobi.
Odinga, a pro-democracy champion who additionally served as prime minister from 2008 to 2013, is being buried Sunday at his household’s homestead in western Kenya’s Bondo.
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He’s to be afforded full army honours alongside conventional rites on the non-public burial, which follows a funeral mass earlier within the day at a close-by college, in response to Kenya’s The Star newspaper.
Hundreds of Kenyans and dignitaries from throughout Africa attended the ultimate interment of a person described as a “selfless pan-Africanist”.
Amongst these in attendance had been Kenya’s President William Ruto, who gave remarks describing Odinga as a “unifier”, Kenya’s former President Uhuru Kenyatta and Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Raila was not only a Kenyan dignitary and liked by Kenyans; he was additionally very revered throughout the continent and even past,” stated Al Jazeera’s correspondent Catherine Soi from the ceremony in Bondo.
“Folks right here wish to honour him for all of the sacrifices he made on this nation.”
Tumultuous memorial occasions
Odinga, 80, died from a suspected heart attack at a well being clinic in southern India on Wednesday. His physique was acquired by 1000’s of mourners in Nairobi on Thursday.
4 public viewing occasions have been held up to now three days, attracting 1000’s of mourners and leaving five people dead and hundreds injured throughout stampedes.
Al Jazeera’s Soi reported that there was additionally “a little bit of a fracas” main as much as Sunday’s burial as “individuals tried to surge” in the direction of the location, although safety personnel “rapidly contained” the group.
Affectionately generally known as “Baba” (“father” in Swahili), Odinga was arguably the most important political figure of his technology in Kenya.
Although primarily generally known as an opposition determine, he grew to become prime minister in 2008 and in addition struck a political pact with former president Kenyatta in 2018, and with President Ruto final 12 months in a profession of shifting alliances.
Though he by no means succeeded in successful the presidency regardless of 5 makes an attempt, he performed a central function in returning the nation to multi-party democracy within the Nineties and is credited as the primary drive behind a extensively praised structure handed in 2010.
Ruto stated on Friday that Odinga helped him “regular the nation” after a political pact signed in March this 12 months, following months of anti-government protests that noticed younger Kenyans storm and burn some Parliament of Kenya buildings.
Former African Union Deputy Chairperson Erastus Mwencha stated Odinga’s affect was continental.
“I see him as a type of who fought for the second liberation,” he stated, including that some African nations are nonetheless struggling for democracy.
Odinga’s loss of life leaves a management vacuum within the opposition, with no apparent successor as Kenya heads right into a doubtlessly unstable election in 2027.
