Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga d!es at 80

Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, has died at the age of 80, a source in Odinga’s office confirmed on Wednesday, October 15. Further details regarding the passing were not immediately provided.

Indian media outlet Mathrubhumi had earlier reported that Odinga, who was undergoing treatment in the southern Indian city of Kochi, suffered a cardiac arrest on Wednesday. He was reportedly rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Odinga, a towering and often polarizing figure in Kenyan politics, was a relentless democracy activist whose work was instrumental in sealing two of the country’s most important political milestones: the introduction of multiparty democracy in 1991 and the promulgation of a new constitution in 2010.

However, his political career was also defined by a series of contentious presidential runs. As opposition leader, Odinga lost all five of his campaigns, with two of the disputed elections in 2007 and 2017 leading to chaotic bouts of violence and political recrimination.

The protests and ethnic clashes that followed the 2007 vote were particularly devastating, plunging the country into its most serious episode of political violence since independence, resulting in the deaths of about 1,300 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands more.