NAIROBI: Two people died and dozens were injured in a stampede at the state funeral of Kenya’s revered opposition leader Raila Odinga on Friday as crowds rushed to see his coffin, Doctors Without Borders said.

It came a day after three people were killed when security forces opened fire to disperse a crowd that had gathered to see Odinga’s body in a separate ceremony.

Odinga, 80, died from a suspected heart attack at a health clinic in southern India on Wednesday, triggering a huge outpouring of grief for a man known affectionately as “Baba” (father) by many Kenyans.

Friday’s state funeral began calmly at Nairobi’s Nyayo stadium, with President William Ruto telling the crowd that Odinga “walked among us as a man but also charged among us as a movement for change, a movement for justice... for a better and greater Kenya.”

Moments later, a surge of mourners trying to reach the coffin on the pitch turned deadly.

Journalists saw people trampled underfoot, leaving some with broken bones or difficulty breathing.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said emergency responders “attended to 163 patients and referred 34 others for further care”.

Lost five presidential elections

Arguably the most important political figure of his generation in Kenya, Odinga served as prime minister from 2008 to 2013, but never succeeded in winning the presidency despite five attempts.

But he outlasted many rivals and is credited as a major player in returning Kenya to multi-party democracy in the 1990s and overseeing the widely praised constitution of 2010.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2025