Kenya was gripped by emotion and unrest on Thursday as thousands of mourners flooded Nairobi’s international airport to welcome home the body of veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who died on Wednesday at the age of 80 in India, where he had been receiving medical treatment. Odinga, a towering figure in Kenyan politics for more than four decades, was revered for his role in the fight for democracy and his five presidential bids that shaped the nation’s political landscape.

President William Ruto and senior government officials had gathered at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to receive Odinga’s body with full military honours. But as the casket was being offloaded from the plane, waves of supporters waving flags, branches, and chanting “Baba!” — Odinga’s nickname meaning “father” in Swahili — stormed the airside, temporarily halting the ceremony. The chaos forced airport operations to be suspended for nearly two hours before order was restored.

The unrest spread beyond the airport as mourners tried to breach the gates of parliament, where Odinga’s body was initially set to lie in state before the venue was changed to a Nairobi sports stadium. Tens of thousands of Kenyans, many too young to remember his early activism, marched and rode motorbikes to the stadium to pay their respects. “We are enjoying our freedoms today because of his struggle,” said university student Felix Ambani Uneck. Another mourner, Khahija Dennis, reflected: “This is our final goodbye to Baba — in a place that belongs to the people he loved.”