Raila Odinga, a central figure in Kenyan politics for over three decades who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency five times, has died in India following a heart attack.

He was an iconic figure in Kenya’s democratic history, “admired and contested” in equal measure for his reformist zeal and five spirited but unsuccessful presidential bids. Odinga rejected the results on each occasion, often saying victory was stolen from him. In 2025, Odinga ran for election as head of the African Union’s executive arm, but lost the contest to Djibouti’s Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.

Born in 1945 to Kenya’s first vice president, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, whose fallout with President Jomo Kenyatta defined a family legacy of political dissent. He studied engineering in East Germany before returning to Kenya under President Daniel arap Moi’s repressive regime. He was detained without trial in 1982 over a failed coup, spending nearly a decade in prison and emerging as a symbol of defiance. His imprisonment propelled him to national prominence.