Raila Odinga

Raila Amolo Odinga CGH (7 January 1945 – 15 October 2025) was a Kenyan politician who served as Prime Minister from 2008 to 2013. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata Constituency from 1992 to 2013. He was also the leader of Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Party.

Odinga ran for President of Kenya five times, with none of his attempts being successful. Each time, Odinga alleged electoral fraud.

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, Odinga was the runner-up as a candidate for the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD), National Super Alliance (NASA) and Azimio la Umoja respectively. After his loss, he filed for petition against President-elect William Ruto at the Supreme Court of Kenya. The court decided against him, and Odinga pledged to respect its ruling.

In February 2024, he announced his candidacy for the African Union Commission Chairperson, but was defeated by Mahamoud Ali Youssouf in the February 2025 ballot.

Raila Odinga, a member of the Luo ethnic group, was born at the Anglican Church Missionary Society Hospital in Maseno, Kisumu District, Nyanza Province, on 7 January 1945. His parents were Mary Juma Odinga and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, who served as the first Vice President of Kenya under Jomo Kenyatta. He 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.

He 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. He 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 master's degree in mechanical engineering. While studying in East Germany during the Cold War, as a Kenyan he was able to visit West Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. When visiting West Berlin, he used to smuggle goods not available in East Berlin and bring them to his friends in East Germany.

According to his book entitled "Flames of Freedom", Raila showed that he was given a Christian name Rayila upon baptism. But, before him being christenend his father Jaramogi Oginga had refused to give him a Christian name. Jaramogi wrote to a Christian priest informing him of his intention to baptize his three children with purely African names who included Omuoda Agola, Oburu Odinga and Raila to be baptized. The priest accepted on condition that he first gets them Christian names as those already recognized in the Church. However, during the real baptism event, Jaramogi refused the set conditions,which made the priest refuse to baptise the three children including Raila Odinga. Him being a traditional African man, Jaramogi had wanted his children to have names of illustrous ancestors which the bishop strongly declined. He had wanted them to be named Ng'ong'a Molo Oburu, Rayila Amolo Odinga and Ngire Omuodo Agola.

Baptised as an Anglican Christian in the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in his childhood, Odinga later became a born-again Christian.