KISUMU (Reuters) -Dozens of mourners were injured on Saturday at a memorial service for Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga as crowds swelled, with some in critical condition taken to a nearby hospital, a Kenyan Red Cross official told Reuters.
A Reuters witness saw injured people receiving treatment at the scene in the city of Kisumu in western Kenya, the political heartland of Odinga’s Luo tribe. The Standard newspaper had said on X that hundreds had been injured.
Two people were killed and more than 160 others were injured at Odinga’s state funeral in Nairobi on Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said.
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.
He commanded a passionate following in the East African nation and a public viewing of his body on Thursday turned deadly when officers opened fire to disperse huge crowds after they breached a gate at a stadium hosting the ceremony. Three people were killed, according to the police.
His body was flown from Nairobi to Kisumu on Saturday for a final public viewing.
Large crowds of people could be seen crying, waving Kenyan flags and at one point pushing one another in a scuffle at the Jomo Kenyatta Stadium in Kisumu.
A road procession had been planned from Kisumu to his Bondo homestead, but following the incident, his body will instead be flown to Bondo, the Standard newspaper said.
(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo in Nairobi and Monicah Mwangi in Kisumu; Writing by Portia Crowe; Editing by Jan Harvey and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
