NAIROBI: Four people were killed in Kenya’s capital Nairobi on Thursday after security forces fired shots and teargas to disperse huge crowds at a stadium where the body of deceased opposition leader Raila Odinga was lying in state, local media reported.
Odinga, a major figure for decades in Kenyan politics who was once a political prisoner and ran unsuccessfully for president five times, died on Wednesday aged 80 in India, where he had been receiving medical treatment.
With thousands of his supporters on the streets from early morning, chaos erupted when a huge crowd breached a gate of Nairobi’s main stadium, prompting soldiers to fire in the air, a Reuters witness said.
A police source told media that two people were shot dead at the stadium. KTN News and Citizen TV later said the death toll had increased to four, with scores of people injured.
After security forces fired shots, police lobbed tear gas to disperse thousands of mourners, the two broadcasters showed, leaving the stadium deserted.
Earlier in the day, thousands of mourners briefly stormed Nairobi’s international airport, interrupting a ceremony for President William Ruto and other officials to receive Odinga’s body with military honours.
That prompted a two-hour suspension of airport operations.
DEVOTION
Crowds also flooded nearby roads and tried to breach parliament, where the government had originally scheduled the public viewing.
Though mainly known as an opposition figure, Odinga became prime minister in 2008 and also struck a political pact with Ruto last year in a career of shifting alliances.
He commanded passionate devotion among supporters, especially in his Luo tribe based in western Kenya, many of whom believe he was cheated of the presidency by electoral fraud.
Odinga’s mourners, many of whom were not yet born in 1991 when Kenya became a multi-party democracy, paid tribute to Odinga’s efforts as an activist.
“He fought tirelessly for multi-party democracy, and we are enjoying those freedoms today because of his struggle,” university student Felix Ambani Uneck told Reuters at the stadium where thousands had gone on foot and motorbikes.
-Monicah Mwangi and Humphrey Malalo
