A chilling video surfaced on social media Thursday, purportedly showing Kenyan forces opening fire to disperse a crowd at the funeral of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The 33-second video showed dozens of people running as several shots rang out during the action. Mint could not verify the authenticity of the video, which was widely circulated on social media.
Four people were killed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday after security forces used gunshots and tear gas to disperse huge crowds at a stadium where the body of late opposition leader Raila Odinga lay in state, local media reported.
“Chaos broke out when . . .”
With thousands of the former prime minister’s supporters on the streets from early morning, chaos erupted as a huge crowd burst through the gates of Nairobi’s main stadium, prompting soldiers to fire into the air, a Reuters witness said.
A police source told Reuters that two people had been shot at the stadium. KTN News and Citizen TV later reported that the death toll had risen to four, with dozens injured.
After security forces opened fire, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of mourners, two broadcasters showed, and the stadium was left 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 honors.
This led to a two-hour disruption to airport operations.
Crowds also flooded nearby roads and tried to break into parliament, where the government had originally planned public viewing.
Raila Odinga dies aged 80
Odinga, a major figure in Kenyan politics for decades, died on Wednesday in Kerala, India. He was in his 80s. Reportedly he was undergoing treatment in Kerala.
Although Odinga is known primarily as an opposition figure, he became prime minister in 2008 and also sealed a political pact with Ruto last year in a career shifting alliance.
He commanded passionate devotion among supporters, especially among his Luo tribe based in western Kenya. Many of these supporters believe he was cheated out 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 enjoy these freedoms today because of his fight,” university student Felix Ambani Uneck told Reuters at the stadium, where thousands of people marched on foot and on motorbikes.
(With inputs from Reuters)
