At least two killed in crowd chaos at Odinga’s funeral – DW – 10/16/2025

At least two people were killed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi when police opened fire on thousands of mourners who came to catch a glimpse of the coffin of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga.

A number of people were injured as Kenyan police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of mourners and evacuated the stadium, local media reported.

Officials have not given any information as to what led to the police action.

Odinga died on Wednesday, aged 80, after collapsing during a morning walk in a hospital in the Indian state of Kerala. A former Prime Minister, Odinga was one of Kenya’s leading politicians.

Thousands of mourners briefly stormed Nairobi’s international airport, disrupting the ceremony for President William Ruto and other officials to receive Odinga’s body with military honors.

The crowd also flooded nearby streets and tried to breach Parliament, where the government had originally scheduled a public demonstration.

The 60,000-capacity football stadium was filled with mourners when security forces fired live rounds into the air in an attempt to control the crowd.

Kenyan police open fire on mourners at Odinga’s public viewing

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dear opposition figure

Odinga spent more than three decades at the center of Kenya’s political transformation, championing multi-party democracy, challenging strongman power and negotiating peace at moments of deep national crisis.

He was often described as Kenya’s most influential opposition figure.

His defining political moment came in the disputed 2007 presidential election. Polls and exit surveys showed that Raila had the support of a large share of voters, but the Electoral Commission declared Mwai Kibaki the winner.

After widespread protests, and post-election violence that left more than 1,000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, an internationally brokered deal led by the late UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan led to a power-sharing agreement.

Raila became Prime Minister in the Grand Alliance from 2008 to 2013.

He ran for president again in 2013, 2017 (in which he won re-election) and 2022, and was unsuccessful in each case.

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar



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