Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga passes away in India

Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who had been undergoing treatment in Kochi, passed away on Wednesday due to cardiac arrest.

Odinga collapsed during a morning walk within the premises of the Ayurvedic facility and was rushed to Devamatha Hospital in Koothattukulam, where he was pronounced dead at around 9:52 am Indian time.

The 80-year-old Odinga is a prominent Kenyan politician who served as the country’s prime minister from 2008 to 2013.

A member of the Luo tribe, he entered parliament in 1992 and ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1997, 2007, 2013, 2017 and 2022, claiming to have been cheated of victory in the last four elections.

The 2007 polls in particular cast a long shadow over Kenyan politics, unleashing a wave of ethnic violence that pitted tribal groups against each other and cost more than 1,100 lives.

Few, therefore, expected Odinga and Kenyatta in 2018 and Ruto in 2023 to shake hands and put an end to decades of vitriol and instability in the East African nation.

Odinga is the son of the nation’s first vice president and was seen as the longest-standing opposition figure in Kenya.

Odinga, a former political prisoner, claimed he was the victim of four stolen elections. Deadly violence followed the disputed 2007 and 2017 votes.

Odinga had pledged to stamp out widespread graft and give a monthly stipend to the unemployed and universal healthcare and free education to all.

His political heartland is in western Kenya, where residents have complained of government neglect due to their support for the opposition.

The Kenyatta and Odinga families have dominated Kenyan politics since the country won independence from Britain in 1963.

Although not as wealthy as Kenyatta or Ruto, Odinga sat at the head of a business empire with stakes in energy companies.

Source: Africa News