Kenya’s revered opposition leader Raila Odinga being laid to rest

Days after several people were killed when mourners gathered in Nairobi to pay their respects, Kenyans are saying a final farewell to revered opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Odinga, a pro-democracy champion who also served as Kenya’s prime minister from 2008 to 2013, will be interred on Sunday at his family’s Bondo homestead.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

According to Kenya’s The Star newspaper, he will receive full military honors at the private burial following a funeral mass earlier that day at a nearby university.

A man who was referred to as a “selfless pan-Africanist” was interred at the final interment of thousands of Kenyans and dignitaries from across Africa.

Olusegun Obasanjo, Kenya’s president, and former president Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s president, were among those present who praised Odinga as a “unifier.”

Raila was a Kenyan dignitary who was also very respected throughout the continent and even beyond, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent Catherine Soi during the ceremony in Bondo.

People in this country want to pay him the sacrifices he made.

Spectacular memorials

On Wednesday, Odinga, 80, died from a suspected heart attack at a southern Indian health clinic. On Thursday, thousands of mourners in Nairobi saw his body.

In the past three days, thousands of mourners have attended four public viewing events that have resulted in the deaths of five people and hundreds of injuries as a result of stampedes.

According to Al Jazeera’s Soi, there was also “a bit of a fracas” leading up to Sunday’s burial as “people tried to surge” toward the site, but security personnel “quickly contained” the crowd.

Odinga was arguably the most significant political figure of his generation in Kenya, affectionately known as “Baba” (“father” in Swahili).

In a career of shifting alliances, he became prime minister in 2008, and he also signed a political pact with former president Kenyatta in 2018 and with President Ruto last year.

He is credited as the main force behind the widely praised constitution passed in 2010 and his failure to win the presidency despite five attempts.

Following months of anti-government protests that saw young Kenyans storm and burn some Parliament of Kenya buildings, Odinga reportedly said on Friday that Odinga had supported him in “steady the country” under a political pact signed in March of this year.

Erastus Mwencha, the former vice president of the African Union, claimed that Odinga had a continental influence.

He continued, noting that some African nations are still trying to achieve democracy, that he “viewed him as one of those who fought for the second liberation.”