President William Ruto will lead dignitaries in viewing the body of the late
former Prime Minister Raila Odinga at Lee Funeral Home in Nairobi.
Ruto, alongside Raila’s family members led by
widow Ida Odinga, former President Uhuru Kenyatta, Cabinet Secretaries, and
other senior government officials, will be the first to view the body at the
morgue.
The body, which landed at JKIA on Thursday
around 9:30 a.m., was received by the President and transported to the funeral
parlour.
At Lee, the body, which arrived wrapped as cargo
in a coffin, will be unwrapped, prepared, and then placed in a new coffin.
It is after this process that Ruto, Uhuru, Ida, and several dignitaries will
view the body before it is moved to Parliament to lie in state.
Security has already been beefed up along
Argwings Kodhek Road, with security agents drawn from the Kenya Defence Forces
(KDF), the National Police Service, and the National Youth Service (NYS) lining
the road.
Part of the road has been closed to traffic, and members of the public have
been asked to proceed to Parliament from noon to get their chance to view the
body of their leader.
Cabinet Secretaries Lee Kinyanjui and Geoffrey
Ruku, along with Secretary to the Cabinet Mercy Wanjau, were among the senior
government officials who arrived earlier to oversee preparations.
Raila’s longtime bodyguard, Maurice Ogeta,
arrived at Lee at 10:40 a.m.
A group of mourners milled around the
roundabout near the Department of Defence (DoD) headquarters and the junction
between Ralph Bunche and Argwings Kodhek roads — sections that have been
barricaded.
Military police have taken charge inside the
Lee Funeral Home, while police officers led by Kilimani OCPD Patricia Yegon are
securing the outer perimeter of the facility.
At the gate, only security officers, ODM
members, leaders, and journalists are being allowed in, with vehicles
redirected immediately after dropping off dignitaries.
Police say they are expecting a huge crowd at
Lee, citing earlier scenes at JKIA where members of the public broke security
barriers and accessed the airport after overwhelming officers.
Security forces have assured that they are
adequately prepared to handle any crowd surge.
Raila,
who commanded a massive and devoted following during his lifetime, continues to
draw the same in death.
