burial

The final public viewing event in the western city of Kisumu has been preceded by deaths and injuries on previous days.

Dozens of people have been injured at a memorial event in Kenya’s western city of Kisumu as huge crowds gathered to view the body of revered former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, local media reported.

The injuries occurred on Saturday at Jomo Kenyatta International Stadium despite authorities deploying military units, police and aerial surveillance to prevent a recurrence of deadly and chaotic incidents that marked earlier memorial proceedings on Thursday and Friday.

Kenya Red Cross teams treated people who fainted from fatigue and distress, evacuating casualties as crowds surged inside the venue. Odinga’s body was being transported to his ancestral home in nearby Bondo for burial on Sunday, drawing tens of thousands throughout the region.

The additional precautions were put in place after violence and chaos killed at least five people during memorial proceedings for the 80-year-old opposition leader and statesman, who collapsed during a morning walk in India’s Kerala state on Wednesday.

Siaya Governor James Orengo urged restraint as arrangements progressed for transporting Odinga’s body to his ancestral home in Bondo, approximately 60km (40 miles) west of Kisumu, where the latest disruptions had occurred.

“I really entreat members of the public and the community in general to maintain the peace during this period,” Orengo told local media.

Thursday’s initial viewing descended into bloodshed when security forces fired weapons and tear gas into crowds surging towards a pavilion where Odinga’s coffin had been placed, killing at least three people at a Nairobi stadium.

A day later, panic swept through mourners exiting Friday’s state funeral service at a separate venue in the capital, triggering a crowd crush that killed two more and sent 163 to medical care.

Huge turnout has characterised every stage of the mourning period since Odinga’s body returned home on Thursday, with supporters walking nearly 30km (20 miles) from Nairobi’s airport to escort his remains.

Friday’s state ceremony drew tens of thousands who sang, danced and waved handkerchiefs as they celebrated a figure many affectionately called “Baba” – the Swahili word for father.

Dignitaries including President William Ruto and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud attended the service, where Odinga’s relatives pleaded for peaceful proceedings.

His brother Oburu told mourners: “Raila should not be teargassed in death. He has been teargassed enough when he was alive.”

Former United States President Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, honoured Odinga as “a true champion of democracy” who “endured decades of struggle and sacrifice for the broader cause of freedom and self-governance in Kenya”, in a post on X.

Obama noted that Odinga “was willing to choose the path of peaceful reconciliation without compromising his core values”.

Odinga never became president despite five attempts spanning three decades, but shaped Kenya’s democratic evolution more profoundly than many who held that office and has led to an outpouring of grief nationally and across Africa.

He spearheaded the country’s return to multiparty politics in the 1990s and drove the passage of a landmark 2010 constitution that distributed authority away from centralised executive power.

After months of dispute, Pretoria high court says Edgar Lungu’s family must hand over his body for burial in Zambia, against their wishes.

A South African court has ruled that Zambia’s former president, Edgar Lungu, who died in South Africa, should be buried in Zambia against his family’s wishes.

Lungu’s burial has been the subject of a two-month dispute between Zambia’s government, which had planned a state funeral for him in Lusaka, and his family, who wanted him buried in South Africa.

Lungu, Zambia’s head of state from 2015 to 2021, died in South Africa on June 5 while receiving medical treatment.

South Africa’s high court halted plans for Lungu to be buried in Johannesburg on June 25, hours before a private ceremony was due to start.

Zambia’s government had approached the court arguing that Lungu should be given a state funeral and buried at a designated site in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, like all other presidents since independence from the United Kingdom in 1964.

Lungu’s family said the late leader did not want the current president, Hakainde Hichilema – a longstanding political rival and his successor – at his funeral.

On Friday, a high court judge in Pretoria said Lungu’s body should “immediately” be handed over to a representative of Zambia’s court system for repatriation and burial in Lusaka.

“A former president’s personal wishes or the wishes of his family cannot outweigh the right of the state to honour that individual with a state funeral,” the court said.

Zambia’s Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha, who was at the court, said the government appreciated the judge’s ruling.

Lungu’s sister, Bertha Lungu, also at the court, was in tears after the judgement was read out.

Lungu’s Patriotic Front party said the family had “filed an appeal against the judgement”.

Lungu was elected to lead the copper-rich Southern African country in 2015, but lost elections six years later to Hichilema, from the United Party for National Development.

Since then, his wife and children have been charged with corruption and possession of suspected proceeds of crime, in what the family has claimed is part of a political vendetta.

Lungu’s daughter, Tasila Lungu, was arrested in February on money laundering charges, having previously been detained with her mother and sister on fraud charges in 2024.

Her brother, Dalitso, is also facing corruption charges.

The country bid farewell to Buhari with military honours and honorific chants of ‘Sai Baba’.

Nigeria’s former President Muhammadu Buhari was buried in the backyard of his home in Daura, a town in the northern Katsina state, as supporters climbed trees and shouted “Sai Baba” to bid farewell to the 82-year-old.

A military parade and 21-gun salute honoured the former president on Tuesday at the airport before his body was transported 80km (50 miles) to Daura, where crowds surged to catch a final glimpse as the casket was lowered into the ground.

Buhari died on Sunday in a London hospital following an undisclosed illness. His coffin, wrapped in Nigeria’s green and white flag, was flown into Katsina and met by President Bola Tinubu, senior government officials, and mourners.

Buhari, who first seized power in a 1983 military coup and ruled for less than two years, returned to lead Africa’s most populous country as a civilian after defeating Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election. He served two terms until stepping down in 2023.

President Tinubu declared seven days of national mourning and a public holiday to honour Buhari’s legacy.

While Buhari’s presidency saw some achievements in infrastructure and anti-corruption efforts, his time in office was also marked by economic downturns, worsening insecurity, and a prolonged crisis in Nigeria’s oil sector.

Still, many in northern Nigeria viewed him as a principled and austere leader who tried to steer the country through turbulent times.

Supporters, some in tears, chanted as the casket disappeared from view, marking the end of an era for a man both revered and criticised.

Buhari leaves behind a mixed legacy

Known for his austere style and fiery rhetoric against corruption, Buhari was seen by his supporters as a reformer. “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody,” he often declared, seeking to position himself above Nigeria’s entrenched political factions.

Yet his presidency struggled to contain rising insecurity. While he promised to defeat Boko Haram and restore order, armed violence spread far beyond the northeast. Gunmen, separatists, and criminal groups operated with impunity across large parts of the country by the end of his tenure.

Still, Buhari leaves behind a legacy as a symbol of democratic change in Nigeria, even if the transformation he promised remained incomplete.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from London following Buhari’s death over the weekend, Alexis Akwagyiram, managing editor at Semafor Africa and a longtime observer of Nigerian politics, said Buhari will be remembered for achieving what many thought impossible: winning power as an opposition candidate.

“He was the first opposition candidate since the return to civilian rule to win at the ballot box,” Akwagyiram said, referencing Buhari’s 2015 victory over Jonathan. “History will remember him favourably for that.”

Yet Akwagyiram was blunt about the failings that marked Buhari’s time in office. He described the former general as “very ineffective” in managing Nigeria’s economy, citing his insistence on maintaining a strong naira, which led to a convoluted system of multiple exchange rates and two recessions during his tenure.

Despite the criticisms, Akwagyiram highlighted why Buhari resonated so strongly with many Nigerians. “He had the personal brand of integrity and honesty,” he said. “In a political climate renowned for corruption, that was appealing.”

Buhari’s austere image and northern support base helped him build a national coalition that twice propelled him to the presidency, a rare feat in Nigerian politics.

“He didn’t try to enrich himself,” Akwagyiram said. “That’s something history will look on favourably.”