Kenya’s veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who was imprisoned while fighting one-party autocracy and ran five times unsuccessfully for the presidency, has died at the age of 80, sources close to him said on Wednesday.
A family source told Reuters he had died in India receiving medical treatment, while the hospital where he died in Kochi city said he suffered a cardiac arrest.
Odinga was for decades at the heart of Kenyan politics, striking alliances with former foes, serving as prime minister for a term, and inspiring lifelong loyalty from his base, particularly among fellow Luos in the west and in the capital Nairobi.
Odinga’s ability to work with rivals earned him the nickname “Agwambo” (“mysterious one”) in the Luo language.
On Wednesday, Kenya’s President William Ruto visited the Odinga family home in Nairobi’s wealthy Karen suburb.
Odinga’s supporters called him simply “Baba” (“father” in Swahili), refusing to leave his side even when he was accused of exploiting ethnic divisions for political gain or of sealing deals with opponents to access power.
As news of his death reached the streets, hundreds of supporters from the Nairobi slum of Kibera, many crying and waving twigs to ward off bad omens, made their way in a procession to Odinga’s home.
His legacy as a democracy activist over the years helped seal two of the country’s most important reforms: multiparty democracy in 1991 and a new constitution in 2010.
Odinga led protests after the disputed 2007 election that plunged Kenya into its most serious political violence since independence. About 1,300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes in the battles.
The western Luo tribe targeted then-President Mwai Kibaki’s ethnic Kikuyu group, Kenya’s largest and most economically dominant tribe, in much of the fighting.
Violence also followed the 2017 vote.
In 2017, Odinga told Reuters: “Each community believes that they are not safe unless their man is at the top”.
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
Odinga was the son of Oginga Odinga, Kenya’s first vice-president under independence leader Jomo Kenyatta. The rivalry between the elder Kenyatta and Odinga continued with their sons.
Despite his family’s extensive business interests, Odinga spent his early years as a left-wing firebrand, naming his son Fidel in honour of the Cuban Communist leader Fidel Castro.
Odinga was first imprisoned in 1982 after a coup attempt against then-President Daniel arap Moi, whose government jailed, tortured and murdered opponents. He served a total of nine years in jail, six in solitary confinement.
“Detention is a good school. You learn to reflect and think,” Odinga told Reuters in 2007. “You also learn tolerance, to be forgiving, particularly against your adversaries.”
Odinga first won his parliamentary seat in 1992, which included Kibera. He held the constituency until 2013, his bright orange Hummer mobbed whenever it bounced into the muddy lanes.
He lost his first presidential bid in 1997 against Moi. Four years later, Odinga formed a coalition government with him, a move some saw as opportunistic but he said was pragmatic.
“Democratisation is not like an instant coffee you brew and drink at the same time. It is a process,” Odinga said at the time.
The pattern continued, with Odinga breaking and building alliances with rivals over the next two decades.
He became prime minister in 2008 in a national unity government headed by his former foe Kibaki, as a part of a deal to end the bloodletting.
Following the 2017 election, he reconciled with his opponent, President Uhuru Kenyatta in what is dubbed the “Handshake”.
He then lost the 2022 election to Ruto and challenged the result, which was upheld by the Supreme Court.
PROTESTS
Undeterred, Odinga, by then in his late seventies, launched street protests against the government, only to strike a pact with Ruto in 2024 and effectively leaving Kenya without an official opposition.
Some observers saw the move as cynical but to many, it was part of a familiar playbook he used to the end.
The head of the African Union commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, who defeated Odinga in the AU’s leadership contest this year, hailed him as “a steadfast champion of democracy”.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was a “towering statesman”. Condolences also came from Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who described his death as a tragedy “not just for Kenya, but for all of us.”
