Raila Odinga, a towering figure in Kenyan politics who served as prime minister and ran unsuccessfully for the presidency five times, has died while on a trip to India. He was 80.
The Devamatha Hospital in Kerala, in southern India, said in a statement that Mr. Odinga died there on Wednesday after he collapsed during a morning walk.
Mr. Odinga played a pivotal role in championing multiparty democracy in the 1990s, after multiple spells in detention without trial. He was a leader both inside and outside government, alternately holding ministerial posts and acting as an opposition figurehead for decades.
As tributes from African leaders poured in, President William Ruto of Kenya announced the death in a televised address and declared seven days of national mourning as well as a state funeral. He described Mr. Odinga as a “colossus of Kenya’s modern politics, an indomitable warrior in our struggle for freedom and prosperity.”
“In his passing, we have lost a patriot of uncommon courage,” he said, calling Mr. Odinga a pan-Africanist “who offered a compelling model of principled politics.”
Mr. Odinga’s death leaves a void in Kenyan politics, given his role as the principal challenger to successive governments. In the short term, it could strengthen the hand of Mr. Ruto, Mr. Odinga’s one-time political nemesis, who faces re-election in 2027.
He was first treated at an ayurvedic hospital for treatment five days earlier, a local police official said. On Wednesday, doctors performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation there before Mr. Odinga was transferred to Devamatha, where he was pronounced dead about two hours later, the hospital said.
Mr. Odinga had been suffering from diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease, the hospital added. A post-mortem examination was being conducted.
“He was by far the most consequential political actor in Kenya over the last 30 years,” said John Githongo, a prominent anticorruption campaigner who supported Mr. Odinga’s 2022 election bid. “For a long time, Raila was the center of gravity in Kenya’s particular brand of often brutal elite politics.” His death is likely to bring “major realignments with quite a bit of head-spinning developments” in Kenyan politics, Mr. Githongo added.
Thousands of people poured onto the streets in Kisumu, the city in western Kenya that was Mr. Odinga’s political stronghold and home to many members of his Luo ethnic group. Some waved tree branches as a sign of mourning, while others blew whistles or honked car and motorbike horns.
“The death of Raila is the death of a hero,” said Jacob Otieno Akach, 75, who lives in the city. “His work toward development and democracy is evident and shall live beyond him.”
Mr. Odinga was regularly referred to by his first name, and in later years he also became known as “Baba,” which means father in Kiswahili.
In a statement, Mr. Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement party called him “a true giant of the nation.” A delegation led by the party’s secretary general, Senator Edwin Sifuna, was traveling to India to retrieve Mr. Odinga’s body. Speaking from the airport in Nairobi, Mr. Sifuna said it was “too early” to consider who might succeed Mr. Odinga as party leader.
Mr. Odinga’s career tracked the twists of Kenya’s transition from autocratic and, for several years, single-party rule into one of Africa’s leading democracies.
Born in western Kenya, he was a scion of one of the country’s most important political families. His father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was a leading figure in the struggle for independence from Britain and served as vice president under Kenya’s founding leader, Jomo Kenyatta.
In the early part of his career, Mr. Odinga cultivated a reputation as an anti-establishment politician, in part through his willingness to defy the police and lead mass demonstrations and also because of his popularity in the poorest parts of Nairobi. He played a leading role in a campaign for a new Kenyan constitution that was adopted in 2010.
Mr. Odinga’s determination to become president made him a pillar of national politics. His failed attempts to achieve that goal frustrated progressives who sought to reform the country’s democratic institutions amid sometimes violent elections and the stubborn grip of ethnic considerations on national politics.
But his reputation as an opposition firebrand was tempered in recent years by compromises with those in power, most notably a deal with President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2018, known as “the handshake.” That ushered in a period of political cohabitation that effectively neutered the opposition.
The terms of “the handshake” were never made public. But critics said Mr. Odinga had put his ambition before his principals.
In 2022, Mr. Kenyatta backed Mr. Odinga to succeed him. But Mr. Odinga lost his fifth presidential bid in an election that Mr. Ruto eventually won.
Mr. Odinga’s early political outlook was influenced by a spell in Eastern Europe. In the 1960s, he won a scholarship to study in communist East Germany, which cultivated ties with many African nations through education. Mr. Odinga named his first son Fidel, after the Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Following a failed coup attempt in 1982 against President Daniel arap Moi, Mr. Odinga was arrested and charged with treason. He was beaten while in custody and spent six years in detention without trial.
After his release, he helped lead protests that spurred a return to multiparty democracy in Kenya. The country joined other African states that were turning their backs on single-party rule after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Kenya’s first multiparty election was held in 1992, and Mr. Odinga’s father ran and lost.
Mr. Odinga himself first ran for president five years later and came in third, behind Mr. Moi.
He finally gained political power when he became prime minister in April 2008, under a deal that helped bring calm after post-election violence killed more than 1,000 people. Mr. Odinga was the main challenger in the 2007 election but the incumbent, Mwai Kibaki, was declared the winner in a contest that many viewed as rigged.
Mr. Odinga’s decision to enter government enabled Mr. Kibaki to retain the presidency, a fact that was galling to many supporters of the opposition leader.
Mr. Odinga was prime minister for five years and ran for president again in 2013, 2017 and 2022. Each time he lost and declared that the result had been rigged.
In 2017, Kenya’s Supreme Court ordered the election to be rerun, saying it had failed to meet democratic standards. Mr. Odinga lost again, but the court decision was hailed as a landmark and a validation of his criticisms.
In his later years, Mr. Odinga came to be viewed by many Kenyan progressives as part of the elite. Few of the Gen-Z protesters that have electrified Kenya since last year with calls for wholesale reform have cited Mr. Odinga as their champion.
For all that, Mr. Odinga’s prominence over successive decades helped him gain stature across Africa, a continent where political longevity commands respect.
Backed by Mr. Ruto, Mr. Odinga bid this year to become chairman of the African Union, a leadership election he hoped to finally win. But in a vote in February, he was defeated by the foreign minister of Djibouti, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
Among those offering condolences on Wednesday was President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, who called Mr. Odinga a “patriotic and selfless leader.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India called Mr. Odinga “a towering statesman and a cherished friend of India” in a statement posted on social media. Mr. Modi said Mr. Odinga had admired “the traditional medicine systems of India” since one of his daughters, Rosemary, traveled to the same ayurvedic hospital in Kerala for treatment.
Mr. Odinga is survived by his wife, Ida, and three children. His eldest son, Fidel, died in 2015.
Odera Wycliffe contributed reporting from Kisumu, Kenya, and Hari Kumar from New Delhi, India.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg is a London-based reporter on the Live team at The Times, which covers breaking and developing news.
Declan Walsh is the chief Africa correspondent for The Times based in Nairobi, Kenya. He previously reported from Cairo, covering the Middle East, and Islamabad, Pakistan.
Ravi Mattu is the managing editor of DealBook, based in London. He joined The New York Times in 2022 from the Financial Times, where he held a number of senior roles in Hong Kong and London.
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