By Edwin Waita
NAIROBI (Reuters) -Thousands of mourners briefly stormed Nairobi’s international airport on Thursday, interrupting a ceremony for the body of veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, with crowds also flooding nearby roads and trying to breach parliament.
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 Odinga’s supporters taking to the streets in his honour, President William Ruto and other officials went to the airport to receive his body with military honours.
But as the coffin was being removed from the plane’s cargo, mourners waving twigs and flags – some on motorbikes – overran the airside, interrupting part of the ceremony, according to a Reuters reporter and footage.
The crowd later backed away from the plane, but the chaos prompted a two-hour suspension of airport operations.
Elsewhere, some Odinga supporters climbed on the gates of parliament, where the government had scheduled a public viewing of his body. The venue for that was changed to a Nairobi sports stadium, his party said.
Though mainly known as an opposition figure, Odinga did become 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 his Luo tribe, based in western Kenya, many of whom believe he was cheated of the presidency by electoral fraud.
(Reporting by Monicah Mwangi, Vincent Mumo, Edwin Waita, Humphrey Malalo and George ObulutsaEditing by Ammu Kannampilly and Andrew Cawthorne)
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