Thousands of mourners, dignitaries, and relatives gathered on Sunday to pay their final respects to Kenya’s former Prime Minister and opposition leader, Raila Odinga, as he was laid to rest at his family homestead in Bondo, western Kenya.
Footage shows military pallbearers carrying Odinga’s coffin to the front of the service as his family, senior government officials, and guests from across Africa took their seats for the final rites.
“Farewell, my dear husband,” said Ida Odinga, his widow, delivering a moving eulogy. “I pray that when my time comes, I’ll join him there in heaven.”
The funeral concluded seven days of national mourning and memorial services, which had been marked by grief, and at times, chaos. On Saturday, a stampede during a public viewing in Nairobi killed at least five people and left dozens injured as thousands queued to pay their respects.
Among those in attendance were President William Ruto, former President Uhuru Kenyatta, and Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo, alongside a host of African dignitaries.
“The nation of Kenya today is flowing with floods of tears of grief,” said President Ruto in his address.
“The foundations of Kenya are shaken by the stomping footsteps of mourners. And the soul of our nation is aching because of the loss of a great hero of our nation, a man who has been made through fabric and struggle,” he added.
Olusegun Obasanjo called Odinga “a brother, a friend, a confidant, and a co-worker in the vineyard of Africa.”
Odinga died last Wednesday, aged 80, while undergoing treatment in Kerala, India. According to reports, he collapsed while walking with his sister, daughter, and personal doctor at an Ayurvedic clinic in the Ernakulam district.
The son of Kenya’s first vice president, Odinga was a towering figure in Kenyan politics for over four decades. A staunch pro-democracy campaigner under Daniel arap Moi’s regime, he spent years in prison and exile during the fight for multi-party reforms.
He later served as Prime Minister from 2008 to 2013 under a power-sharing agreement following Kenya’s deadly post-election violence, a position later abolished under the 2010 constitution. A private burial followed a state funeral mass held earlier in the day at a nearby university.
Odinga’s death leaves Kenya’s opposition without a clear successor ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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