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Police Tear gas was fired at thousands of mourners in Kenya on Thursday during a public viewing of the body of a former prime minister. Raila OdingaAn influential politician who died a day ago India,
Mourners filled a 60,000-capacity football stadium in the capital after the body was carried on foot from the country’s main airport, 18 miles (29 kilometers) away. Tension escalated when they demolished the Rashtrapati Mandal, following which police officials had to use tear gas.
A stampede broke out at the stadium gate as the mourners ran out and the leaders present remained locked in a room. An unknown number of people were injured in the stampede.
Odinga’s mortal remains arrived from India on Thursday morning in a chartered flight and were given a water cannon salute at the airport.
The planned ceremonial welcome of the mortal remains by close family and top leaders at the airport was disrupted when the mourners demanded permission to view the mortal remains. People People eager to see the body walked alongside the military vehicle carrying Odinga from the runway waving branches.
“As a country we are in mourning. We loved Baba very much, he was a savior of the people,” said Beatrice Addala, one of several people visiting the airport. Like many people, she called Odinga “Baba”, a Kiswahili honorific usually reserved for a loving father.
The politician, who was praised for his fight for democracy, died on Wednesday at the age of 80 after collapsing during a morning walk. Efforts to revive him at a hospital in the Indian state of Kerala failed.
Odinga will be given a state funeral on Sunday at his rural home Bondo in the country’s western region.
According to his family, he had requested to be buried as soon as possible, ideally within 72 hours, which is unusual for popular leaders in Kenya.
The country has declared Friday a public holiday when Kenyans will gather at football stadiums nairobi For his state funeral service. Another public viewing will be held on Saturday in the western county of Kisumu, close to his rural home.
Parliament announced that the planned public viewing in the parliamentary complex had been moved to a football stadium to provide more space for mourners.
Kenyan President William 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 extraordinary courage, a pan-Africanist, a unifying figure who sought peace and unity above power and self-gain”.
Ruto declared seven days of national mourning for the veteran politician.
Odinga ran for president of Kenya five times in three decades – sometimes with so much support that many believed he could win.
Although Odinga never succeeded in becoming president, for many he was a respected figure and politician whose activism helped move Kenya toward a vibrant multi-party democracy.
He came close to assuming the presidency in 2007, when he narrowly lost to incumbent Mwai Kibaki in a disputed election marred by ethnic violence.
Odinga served as Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013 in the unity government brokered by the international community.
In 2017, a court annulled the presidential election – a first in Africa – when Odinga challenged it, but he decided to boycott a new vote, saying it would not be credible without reforms.