65 Facts About Raila Odinga

Raila Amolo Odinga was born on 7 January 1945 and is a Kenyan politician who served as the Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013.

Raila Odinga was the Member of Parliament for Langata Constituency from 1992 to 2007 and has been the Leader of Opposition in Kenya since 2013.

In 2013,2017, and 2022, Raila Odinga was the runner-up as a candidate for the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy, National Super Alliance and Azimio la Umoja respectively.

The court decided against him, and Raila Odinga pledged to respect its ruling.

Raila Odinga was born at the Anglican Church Missionary Society Hospital in Maseno, Kisumu District, Nyanza Province on 7 January 1945 to Mary Juma Odinga and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

Raila Odinga's father served as the first Vice President of Kenya under President Jomo Kenyatta.

Raila Odinga went to Kisumu Union Primary, Maranda primary in Bondo and Maranda High School where he studied until 1962, when he was transferred by his father to Germany.

Raila Odinga spent the next two years at the Herder Institution, which trained foreign students in the German language and was part of the philological faculty at the University of Leipzig in East Germany.

Raila Odinga received a scholarship that in 1965 sent him to the Technische Hochschule of Magdeburg in the GDR.

In 1974, Raila Odinga was appointed group standards manager of the Kenya Bureau of Standards.

Raila Odinga was arrested and charged with treason after being accused of being among the masterminds of the 1982 coup.

Raila Odinga was released six years later in February 1988 but detained again in August of the same year to be released in June 1989.

Raila Odinga was later charged with treason and detained without trial for six years.

Raila Odinga was released on 6 February 1988 only to be rearrested in September 1988 for his pro-democracy and human rights agitation at a time when the country continued to descend deep into the throes of poor governance and the despotism of single-party rule.

Raila Odinga was released on 12 June 1989, only to be incarcerated again on 5 July 1990, together with Kenneth Matiba, and former Nairobi mayor Charles Rubia, both multiparty system and human rights crusaders.

Raila Odinga was finally released on 21 June 1991, and in October he fled the country to Norway amid indications that the increasingly corrupt Kenyan government was attempting to assassinate him without success.

In February 1992, Raila Odinga returned to join FORD, then led by his father Jaramogi Oginga Raila Odinga.

Raila Odinga was elected Vice Chairman of the General Purposes Committee of the party.

Raila Odinga won the Langata Constituency parliamentary seat, previously held by Philip Leakey of KANU.

Raila Odinga became the second father of multi-party democracy in Kenya after Kenneth Matiba.

When Jaramogi Oginga Raila Odinga died in January 1994 and Michael Wamalwa Kijana succeeded him as FORD-Kenya chairman, Raila Odinga challenged him for the party leadership.

The elections were marred by controversy after which Raila Odinga resigned from FORD-Kenya to join the National Development Party.

Raila Odinga however retained his position as the Langata MP.

Previous admirers of Raila Odinga now saw him as a sell-out to a cause he had once championed by closing ranks with a despot.

Raila Odinga accepted a position in Moi's cabinet as Energy Minister, serving from June 2001 to 2002, during Moi's final term.

The exodus, led by Raila Odinga, saw most big names fleeing the party.

Raila Odinga led the campaign for Kibaki throughout the country while Kibaki was bedridden and incapacitated following an accident while on his way back to Nairobi from a campaign meeting at Machakos junction 40 kilometres from Nairobi in which he sustained injuries.

Raila Odinga instead sought to entrench and increase his own NAK's side in cabinet, even appointing MPs from the opposition parties to the cabinet.

Raila Odinga opposed this and went on to campaign with his LDP cabinet colleagues on the referendum 'No' side, opposing the president and his lieutenants in a bruising countrywide campaign.

In January 2006, Raila Odinga was reported to have told police that he believed his life was in danger, having received assassination threats.

Miguna Miguna, who administered the oath, was deported, while Raila Odinga faced no consequences.

Raila Odinga went on to have a handshake and take part in government decision making.

The handshake resulted in William Ruto being sidelined in the Government he formed with Uhuru Kenya, with Raila Odinga being elevated to de facto Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya.

The efforts by Kenyatta and Raila Odinga to bring peace and cohesion in the country were applauded by several leaders locally and internationally with the duo being invited to a National Prayer Breakfast International Lunch in Washington DC, USA in February 2020.

Raila Odinga was appointed High Representative for Infrastructure Development at the African Union Commission in 2018.

Raila Odinga was relieved of his duties by the entity on 23 February 2023, the day after he incited his supporters to violence through mass action.

On 10 December 2021, Raila Odinga announced that he will be eyeing a fifth stab at the presidency, putting an end to months of suspense after his surprise truce with President Kenyatta.

On 12 July 2007, with Kibaki's reelection bid drawing close, Raila Odinga alleged that the government was withholding identity cards from voters in opposition strongholds with the intention to skew the election in favour of Kibaki.

Raila Odinga claimed that the intended creation of 30 new constituencies was a means by the government to fraudulently engineer victory in the December 2007 parliamentary election.

Raila Odinga received 2,656 votes; the only other candidates who received significant numbers of votes were Musalia Mudavadi with 391 and William Ruto with 368.

Raila Odinga then launched his presidential campaign in Uhuru Park in Nairobi on 6 October 2007.

Raila Odinga was sworn in as Prime Minister, along with the power-sharing Cabinet, on 17 April 2008.

Raila Odinga is thus the second person in Kenya's history to hold the position.

The next presidential election in which Raila Odinga was to run was the 2013 March poll, involving Kibaki's handover of power.

Raila Odinga was notably quoted as saying that "Choices have consequences", referring to the fate of US-Kenyan relations, with a Uhuru administration.

Raila Odinga ran for president in the elections held on 4 March 2013 and garnered 5,340,546 votes out of the 12,221,053 valid votes cast.

However, in a press conference shortly after the results were announced, Raila Odinga said that the election had been marred by massive failures of the Biometric Voter Registration kits, EVID, RTS and the RPS.

Raila Odinga claimed that the manual tallying was suspect leaving him no choice but to The Kenya Presidential Election Petition 2013 contest the result in Kenya's highest court, The Supreme Court.

Raila Odinga called the alleged intrusion "the biggest vote theft in Kenya's history".

The IEBC however rejected Raila Odinga's contention, saying the winner could not be announced before the tallying was complete and being an independent body it could not be compelled by one of the candidates to announce the results.

Raila Odinga was cleared to run for the presidency for the fifth time on 5 June 2022 by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.

Raila Odinga outlined a key component of his vision for the country, dubbed "the People's Programmes", which he promised as the foundation for his platform.

Raila Odinga's position was once in favour of a parliamentary system as he initially backed a constitution giving executive powers to a prime minister, but he subsequently changed his position to support a presidential system with a devolved power structure, which is reflected in Kenya's current constitution.

Raila Odinga has supported an element of state welfare in the form of cash-transfer programs to low-income people.

Nevertheless, on social issues, Raila Odinga has taken a more conservative line.

On LGBT issues, Raila Odinga stated that "the constitution is very clear on this issue and men or women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared", adding that "If we find a man engaging in homosexuality or a woman in lesbianism, we'll arrest them and put them in jail".

Raila Odinga is a Kenyan representative at East Africa Legislative Assembly.

Raila Odinga briefly played soccer for Luo Union as a midfielder.

Raila Odinga is a supporter of English Premier League club Arsenal.

Raila Odinga wrote "Flame of Freedom" a 1040-page autobiography which talks about his life from childhood.

Raila Odinga was accompanied by a number of Kenyan county governors.

Raila Odinga later denied this, according to the Nairobi Star.

Raila Odinga has been reportedly linked to a 2019 multi-million dollar advance-fee scam of non-existent and "fake gold" in Kenya by a number of politicians from both sides of the political divide in Kenya.

Later in the same month a number of political leaders in Kenya called for Raila Odinga to be investigated by the DCI for international conmanship.

For example, a photo claiming to show Raila Odinga collapsing at his Karen home was circulated on social media.