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Raila Amolo Odinga is a name well known in the Kenyan political space over the last four decades.
He was a politician, a businessman and a leader whose contributions to the Kenya’s political landcape will remain unforgotten.
Born on January 7, 1945 at at Maseno Church Missionary Society Hospital, in Maseno, Kisumu District, Nyanza Province, Raila is a son to the late Mary Ajuma Odinga and the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the first Vice President of the Republic of Kenya.
He attended Kisumu Union Primary School, Maranda Primary and Maranda High School where he stayed until 1962. He spent the next two years at the Herder Institut, a part of the philological faculty at the University of Leipzig in East Germany.
The Herder Institut would train foreign students on the German language and was part of the philological faculty at the University of Leipzig in East Germany.
Raila received a scholarship that in 1965 sent him to the Technische Hochschule (technical college) of Magdeburg (now a part of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg) in the GDR.
In 1970, he graduated with a diplom (roughly equivalent to a Master’s degree) in Mechanical Engineering and Welding. While studying in East Berlin during the Cold War, as a Kenyan he was able to visit West Berlin through the Checkpoint Charlie.
When visiting West Berlin, he used to smuggle goods not available in East Berlin and bring them to his friends in East Berlin.
He returned to Kenya in 1970. In 1971, Raila established the Standard Processing Equipment Construction & Erection Ltd (later renamed East African Spectre), a company manufacturing liquid petroleum gas cylinders.
In 1974, he was appointed group standards manager of the Kenya Bureau of Standards. In 1978 he was promoted to its deputy director, a post he held until 1982 when he was arrested and detained without trial for allegedly being involved in a failed coup attempt against Moi’s government.
Raila Odinga dies in India aged 80; cause of death revealed
He would spend a total of nearly nine years in detention over various periods, earning him the title of a political prisoner and symbol of resistance against authoritarianism.
After his release, he was twice arrested for campaigning against one-party rule, and in 1991 he sought refuge in Norway. He returned to Kenya in 1992, however, and was elected a member of the National Assembly that year under the banner of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy–Kenya (FORD–K), the party led by his father.
After his father’s death in 1994, Raila became embroiled in a leadership struggle within the party and in 1996 left FORD–K and joined the National Development Party (NDP).
In 1997, he vied unsuccessfully as the NDP’s candidate for election as president of Kenya but was able to retain his seat in the National Assembly. He and the NDP thereafter gave their support to Moi and the ruling Kikuyu-dominated Kenya African National Union (KANU).
Raila joined Moi’s cabinet as energy minister in 2001, and the NDP was absorbed into the ruling party the following year, becoming KANU’s secretary-general.
In 2005, following the defeat of a government-backed constitutional referendum, Raila led the formation of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), which became a major opposition force.
He ran for the Presidency five times, with none of his attempts being successful. In 1997, he finished third as the candidate of the National Development Party (NDP). In 2007, he ran again for the presidency under the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and lost to Mwai Kibaki.
In 2013, 2017, and 2022, Raila was the runner-up as a candidate for the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD), National Super Alliance (NASA) and Azimio la Umoja respectively. Following his defeat, he filed a petition against President William Ruto at the Supreme Court of Kenya.
The court ruled against him, and Raila pledged to respect its ruling. In February 2024, he announced his candidacy for the African Union Commission Chairperson, but was defeated by Djibouti’s Mahamoud Ali Youssouf in the February 2025 ballot.
