Three mourners shot dead by Kenyan police at a national farewell for former prime minister Raila Odinga were not involved in the clash that sparked the gunfire, according to an investigation by the Africa Eye team of an international news organisation. The probe, which analysed footage and images from inside Nairobi’s Kasarani Stadium, found that the victims were between at least 60 metres and 160 metres from the scuffles that preceded the shooting.
The killings took place on 16 October 2025, a day after Odinga died while receiving medical treatment in India. He was Kenya’s longest-serving opposition leader and one of the country’s most influential political figures, and he was 80. A year later, the police oversight body is still investigating the deaths and the police response, and no one has been held to account.
Investigators say victims were far from the clash
The event was held so the public could pay their respects to Odinga. During it, mourners tried to force their way into the stadium’s VIP section, and three people were shot dead. The investigation reviewed more than 1,500 images and videos to establish where each person was killed, and it also spoke to some of the victims’ relatives.
Kenya’s Interior Minister, Kipchumba Murkomen, told the broadcaster that police had acted with restraint after the crowd began throwing stones. Investigators said that footage clearly shows objects being thrown, including plastic chairs, but that they found no evidence the objects included stones.
According to the analysis, Evans Kiche, a 40-year-old chef and father of seven, was around 60 metres from the confrontation when he was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. Vincent Ogutu and Jidah Burka were at least 160 metres away, in the opposite stands, far from the VIP pavilion. Autopsy reports confirm that Ogutu died from a gunshot wound to the chest, and that Burka, 42, was fatally shot in the head.
Forensic analysis points to presidential protection unit
Using a timeline of events, the investigators identified at least eight police officers operating together. They wore tactical clothing and military camouflage, carried assault rifles, had no visible insignia and kept their faces covered. Their uniforms and movements matched a security layer assigned to President William Ruto and other VIPs before and after the shooting.
At least three of these officers appear to have fired their weapons. The investigation identified three of them as members of an elite police unit responsible for presidential protection. However, it said it cannot establish which bullets killed each victim, and it cannot rule out that other officers also fired inside the stadium.
The National Police Service told the investigators that there were “huge lessons picked from the day’s events”, which had formed “a fundamental learning curve for a better, more professional application in the future”. The Independent Policing Oversight Authority, known as IPOA, did not respond to a request for comment.
Families and officials respond a year after the shooting
Odinga’s death at 80 prompted an outpouring of grief across Kenya, and thousands gathered at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport when his body was flown home. The coffin was originally due to lie in state at parliament, but the scale of the crowds and fears of a security breach led to a last-minute change of venue to Kasarani. Officials said they had little time to secure the 48,000-capacity stadium, and thousands of people spilled onto the pitch and into the stands unchecked.
After several hours of waiting in 30C heat, with no public address system to provide updates, a small section of the crowd began throwing objects at officers guarding the VIP pavilion. Police fired live rounds as mourners pushed towards the pavilion. Footage from other parts of the stadium showed that the crowd remained largely peaceful.
Murkomen defended the officers, saying they had been under “so much pressure” after working many hours without a break and being deployed to a new venue at the last minute. He said the investigation was in the hands of an independent oversight body and that its findings would help the government decide on appropriate legal action. Asked about the officers’ conduct, he said: “I don’t think… somebody [was] sitting there and saying: ‘Shoot now’. It is the judgment of the police officer at the spur of the moment.”
Ogutu, a 36-year-old father of three, had not planned to attend Kasarani, his wife said. He was in central Nairobi on the morning of 16 October with friends when they saw crowds heading to the stadium and decided to join them. His widow, Yvonne Akinyi, said the killing had upended their family and left their children orphaned.
As she prepares to mark a year since her husband’s death, Akinyi said she still cannot understand why he died while paying his respects at an event organised by the government. “I will just try to be that strong woman. Very strong. But deep inside there is a hole,” she said. “At Kasarani there were so many people, so many of them. Why him.”
