Former Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga dies aged 80
Raila Odinga, Kenya’s former prime minister and serial presidential contender whose populist campaigns unsettled authorities and gave him outsized sway over his country’s politics, died Wednesday of a heart attack while visiting India. He was 80.
Devamatha Hospital in India’s Kerala state confirmed his death; he was taken there after collapsing during a morning walk. A hospital statement said Odinga went into cardiac arrest and did not respond to resuscitation efforts.
Odinga had recently reached a political agreement with Kenyan President William Ruto that brought his opposition party into key government policymaking and placed some of its members in the cabinet.
Yet his ultimate goal was the presidency, and over three decades he ran five times — often with enough backing that many thought he could win. He came closest in 2007, narrowly losing to incumbent Mwai Kibaki in a disputed election marred by ethnic violence.
Kenyan politics has long had a tribal dimension, and Odinga, a member of the Luo ethnic group from the western Nyanza region, spent his career navigating that landscape in hopes of reaching State House, the official presidential residence in Nairobi.
Although he never achieved that office, many saw him as a revered figure and statesman whose activism helped steer Kenya away from single-party rule and toward a vibrant multiparty democracy.
Deputy Editor
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