NAIROBI, Kenya – Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has died at the age of 80.
Indian newspaper The Hindu reported that Odinga, who was undergoing treatment in the southern Indian city of Kochi, suffered a cardiac arrest during his morning walk on Wednesday and was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
He had spent the last five days receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment at the Sreedhareeyam Ayurvedic Eye Hospital and Research Centre. He was accompanied by his daughter and personal doctor.
As opposition leader, Odinga lost all five of his presidential campaigns, with two of the votes leading to chaotic bouts of bloodletting and recrimination a decade apart.
His work as a democracy activist over the years helped seal two of the country’s most important reforms: multiparty democracy in 1991 and a new constitution in 2010.
He led the protests after the disputed 2007 election that plunged the country into its most serious episode of political violence since independence. About 1,300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes in the battles.
