Thousands turn out to receive body of former Kenyan PM Raila Odinga

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Thousands of Kenyans turned out Thursday at the country’s main airport to receive the body of influential African politician and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, a day after he died in India.

Odinga’s body arrived in a chartered airplane and was given a water cannon salute at the airport ahead of a planned public viewing later Thursday.

Operations at the airport were halted for two hours as Kenyans eager to view the body walked alongside the military vehicle carrying Odinga right from the runway towards the exit.

“We are in mourning as a country. We loved Baba so much, he was the defender of the people,” said Beatrice Adala, one of many who went to the airport. Like many, she called Odinga “Baba,” a Kiswahili honorific usually reserved for a beloved father figure.

The politician, who was lauded for his fight for democracy, died Wednesday at 80 years old after he collapsed during a morning walk and efforts to resuscitate him at a hospital in India’s Kerala State failed.

Odinga will be given a state funeral, including final rites Sunday at his rural home of Bondo, in the western region of the country.

According to his family, he had requested to be buried quickly, ideally within 72 hours, which is unusual for popular leaders in Kenya.

The country has declared Friday a public holiday when Kenyans will congregate at a football stadium in Nairobi for his state funeral service. Another public viewing will be held Saturday in the western county of Kisumu, close to his rural home.

A planned ceremonial reception of the body by close family and top leaders at the airport was disrupted when mourners demanded access to view the body.

Parliament announced that the planned public viewing at the parliamentary precincts 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 uncommon courage, a pan-Africanist, a unifier who sought peace and unity above power and self-gain.”

Ruto declared seven days of national mourning for the veteran politician.

Odinga ran for Kenya’s presidency five times over three decades — sometimes with enough support that many believed he might win.

Although Odinga never succeeded at becoming president, for many he was a revered figure and statesman whose activism helped steer Kenya into a vibrant multiparty democracy.

He came close to taking the presidency in 2007, when he narrowly lost to incumbent Mwai Kibaki in a disputed election marred by ethnic violence.

Odinga then served as prime minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013 in a unity government put together with the mediation of the international community.

In 2017, a court nullified the presidential election — a first in Africa — after Odinga’s challenge but he decided to boycott the fresh vote, asserting it wouldn’t be credible without reforms.