Former Kenyan leader Raila Odinga has been laid to rest after days of memorial events

Kenya’s former prime minister and respected longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga was laid to rest in the western part of the country after a service attended by thousands on Sunday.

“Now at last Baba is home,” said his son, Raila Odinga Jr., next to his father’s casket draped in the Kenyan flag.

The funeral capped days of memorials that at times led to chaos, with at least five mourners killed at other events and dozens injured during a public viewing on Saturday.

Odinga died on Wednesday at the age of 80 in an Indian hospital.

He became prime minister after a bloody and contested election in 2007 and was the main opposition leader for many years, losing five presidential campaigns, the last three years ago.

He retains a devoted following in the western part of the country. Former US President Barack Obama, whose Kenyan family hails from the same region, called Odinga “a true champion of democracy”.

Politicians, relatives and crowds of his supporters waved Kenyan flags and held up his picture as they gathered at Sunday’s memorial service held at a university in Bondo.

“Even in the grave, he is still our hero,” one of the mourners told AFP.

Military personnel carried Odinga’s coffin to the front, where a choir sang and speakers including Kenyan President William Ruto remembered him.

“His courage, his vision and his unwavering belief in our collective destiny will forever light our nation’s path,” Ruto said in a Facebook post about the event.

“His return to Bondo was not just a homecoming; it was the embrace of a grateful republic bidding farewell to one of its greatest sons, a patriot who dedicated his life to the cause of justice, democracy and lasting unity of our beloved Kenya.”

Odinga is buried nearby at his late father’s homestead, where there is a family mausoleum.

A number of memorial events had already taken place, including a state funeral in Nairobi on Friday and a public viewing at a stadium in his hometown of Kisumu on Saturday.

At the viewing, tens of thousands filed past his open casket, many chanting the phrase “we are orphans.”

At least three people were killed when the police opened fire to disperse the mournerswith scores of others injured in the chaotic scenes that followed.