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

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

Odinga’s body arrived in a chartered airplane and was given a water salute at the airport ahead of a planned public viewing in the country’s parliament in the afternoon.

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

Odinga will be accorded 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.

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 “statesman.”

Ruto declared seven days of national mourning for the veteran politician, who he said was “a patriot of uncommon courage, a pan-Africanist, a unifier who sought peace and unity above power and self-gain.”

Odinga’s ambition was to become Kenya’s president, and he ran five times over three decades — sometimes with enough support that many believed he might win.

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.

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.