Raila Odinga
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 7th, 1945 |
| GENDER | Male |
| FAMILY | Married to Ida Oyoo Odinga and have four children. He is also the son of the late Jaramogi Odinga Oginga |
| OCCUPATION | Politician, Engineer |
BIOGRAPHY
Educational and Political Background
Raila Odinga attended Kisumu Union Primary and Maranda High School during his elementary and high school years.
He later dropped out of high school in 1962 and moved to what was then East Germany to attend the Herder Institute. In 1965, Odinga received a scholarship to attend the University of Leipzig in East Germany’s philological faculty, the Technical School, Magdeburg. In 1970, he earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering.
After serving as Prime Minister from 2008 to 2013, Mr. Odinga returned to Kenya to complete his studies and start a company specializing in the manufacture of cylinders for storing liquid petroleum gas. This company, originally known as Standard Processing Equipment Construction and Erection Limited, is now referred to as East African Spectre.
Raila Odinga in Detention
In 1974, Raila was appointed Group Standards Manager at the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS), a position he held until 1982, when he was arrested for his political activities and subsequently incarcerated. The government of then-President Daniel Moi put him under house arrest for a total of seven months. He was later accused of treason and imprisoned for six years without trial. His mother passed away in 1984 while he was in prison.
On February 6, 1988, Mr. Moi ruled for his release, but by September of that year, he had been arrested and incarcerated again. On June 12, 1989, he was released from prison, but on July 5, 1990, he was arrested once more as part of the movement for multi-party democracy along with Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia. After being freed from jail on June 21, 1991, he feared for his safety and emigrated to Norway in November of the same year.
Active Politics
After moving back to Kenya in February 1992, Raila Odinga quickly became involved with the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (Ford), eventually becoming the party’s vice chairman of the General Purposes Committee. In 1992, he ran on the Ford Kenya ticket and won the Lang’ata MP seat.
After his father, Mr. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, passed away in January 1994, he ran for party chairman but lost to Michael Wamalwa Kijana. He left Ford-Kenya to join the National Development Party (NDP).
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After running for president in 1997 and coming in third, he organized a merger between his party, the National Democratic Party (NDP), and Mr. Moi’s Kanu party. From June 2001 to June 2002, he was the Minister of Energy in Moi’s Cabinet. As part of the merger’s power-sharing agreement, he was named Kanu party secretary-general in the subsequent elections.
Ending the KANU rule of 24 years
Mr. Odinga and Mr. Moi had a falling out in 2002 after Mr. Moi backed Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta for president. Mr. Odinga and other Kanu members, such as Kalonzo Musyoka, the late George Saitoti, and the late Joseph Kamotho, argued that the then-38-year-old Mr. Kenyatta lacked the necessary political experience and leadership characteristics to rule; therefore, they opposed this move.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) they joined eventually merged with Mr. Mwai Kibaki’s National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) and many other parties to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), which ultimately defeated Mr. Kenyatta in the 2002 election.
Quest for Presidency
Afterwards, he disagreed with Mr. Kibaki and ran against him in the 2007 presidential election, which was followed by the bloodiest post-election violence in Kenya’s history. During the peace talks brokered by the late former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, he was appointed Prime Minister of the resulting grand coalition.
In addition, he lost to Mr. Kenyatta in the highly contentious 2013 presidential election. The Supreme Court overturned the election results, but Raile refused to vote in the rerun in October 2017.
Also Read: Uhuru Kenyatta Profile: Background, Education, Politics and Family
He ran for President again in 2022 but ‘lost’ to William Ruto, and he declared the election was stolen.
Dr. Ruto garnered 50.49 percent of the vote, while Raila Odinga received 48.85 percent. Mr. Odinga challenged the results at the Supreme Court. However, the seven-judge bench upheld Dr Ruto’s win.
The court stated that it found no evidence of hacking and that no evidence was presented to show that Mr. Chebukati and other IEBC staff were involved. Raila later had a handshake with Uhuru in March 2018. In 2022, Odinga lost the presidential race to Ruto. In 2024, Odinga and Ruto reached a political deal to join the government.
In 2022, Raila Odinga vied for the presidency again but lost to William Ruto, before he moved to the Supreme Court.
Kenya’s apex court upheld Ruto’s win, describing Raila’s petition as hot air and a wild goose chase. Following the ruling, Odinga launched anti-government protests aimed at frustrating Ruto.
In 2024, Gen Zs took to the streets in what was almost a coup, with protesters setting Parliament on fire. Tens of youths were killed.
Raila Odinga later joined Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza administration in an arrangement known as the Broad-based Government.
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