Nation bids bye to Jakom in a sea of flags and tears
National
By
Okumu Modachi
| Oct 18, 2025
Waving flags, hoisting symbols of the hammer, and chanting patriotic songs, thousands braved a chilly morning heavy with sorrow to pay their last tribute to the country's former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga.
From the break of dawn on Friday, the gates of Nyayo National Stadium opened to streams of mourners—young and old, Nairobi City dwellers from all walks of life—who turned up to pay their final respects to a man many deeply revered and called the father of democracy.
Leaders from both sides of the political divide showed up. The hum of gospel hymns from the public address system kept the stadium alive.
By 10 a.m., the atmosphere inside the stadium was electric yet sombre. The crowd, swelling with each passing minute, had their eyes fixed on the body of the late ex-PM as it appeared through the gate, placed on a military carriage amid wild emotional expression.
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Mr. Odinga died on the morning of Wednesday, October 15, while receiving treatment in India. The family said he succumbed to cardiac arrest.
Draped in the Kenyan flag, his coffin lay atop a military gun carriage—a powerful symbol of his stature as a national hero and political icon.
Like a wave, chants began rising from the terraces: "Baba! Baba! Tinga!" Voices thick with emotion, fists raised high, flags—both national and plain white—fluttering in the mid-morning breeze.
The air reverberated with whistles, the sharp blare of vuvuzelas, and traditional horns, creating an eclectic but profoundly Kenyan symphony of farewell.
The military performed a slow march of the body across the stadium and finally, the ceremonial pallbearers “officially handed the body to the mourners.”
They mounted the Guard of Honour, which perhaps made up for the one he missed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Thursday morning when the remains arrived, with President William Ruto waiting to receive them.
Inside the stadium, colour met solemnity in a rich spectacle of tradition and national pride.
Many sat in stairways, others perched atop walls, watching on giant screens mounted inside the pitch. The atmosphere seemed to pulse with the same heartbeat.
The words from every speaker were interspersed with bursts of ululation and tears. “We gather not just to mourn a leader, but to honour a legacy,” the mourners said, their voices firm but shaken.
Amid the speeches that hailed the legacy of Mr. Odinga, moments of heightened emotion followed one another like waves—raw and bare.
Raila's elder brother, Oburu Odinga, seemed to have cracked up mourners, temporarily releasing the emotional tension when he introduced his two wives.
Almost every speaker recited Raila's monikers—Baba, Tinga, Agwambo, Jakom—with each eliciting raw grief that told of the deep impact the leader had and the sorrow his death has cast upon their lives.
“Baba yetu!” they roared, some choked in tears.
Security personnel stood alert throughout the ceremony, their rare discipline mirroring the man whose life they had come to honour. “He loved peace,” they reiterated time and again.
All the while, ululation and song married Raila's funeral service, dramatized by a section of mourners who danced and wailed, moving from one corner of the stadium to the other waving twigs and beating drums.
This, in Luo culture, is a way of venerating the dead and, in this case, a sign of respect to a man of Raila's stature—dignifying him and giving him the last respect.
Just like his contributions to the socio-political development of the country, his funeral service will remain etched in the hearts and memories of those he led—a lasting testament to his enduring legacy.