Rt. Hon. Raila
Odinga, EGH

Prime Minister
Republic of Kenya (2008-2013)

The Rt Hon Raila Amolo Odinga is currently the leader of the opposition coalition known as the Azimio la Umoja - one Kenya Alliance
In October 2018, Mr Odinga was appointed as the Africa Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development in Africa, a position he held until February, 2023.
 
Until March 2013, Mr Odinga was the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya and Member of Parliament for Langata Constituency within the city of Nairobi, Kenya, since 1992. Mr Odinga became Prime Minister following the signing of a National Accord and Reconciliation Act 2008 which created the office to facilitate power-sharing between the main protagonists of the controversial 2007 elections in Kenya. The hallmark of Mr Odinga’s life and career has been his role in the struggle for freedom and democracy in Kenya since the 1970s, for which he was three times detained without trial. During the 1990s, he worked closely with the International Republican Institute as a resource person for peace and conflict resolution in the then war-torn countries of Mozambique and Burundi and offered similar support to peaceful electoral processes in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Mr Odinga has received honours and recognition for his various roles, including lately, an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Nairobi for his role in restoring peace to Kenya following the controversial 2007 elections. In February 2011, he was appointed Special Peace Envoy of the African Union following the post-election crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. Mr Odinga strongly recommended that Mr Laurent Gbagbo surrender power to the winner, current President Alassane Ouattara.

Besides his career in politics, Mr Odinga is also a successful businessman and entrepreneur, having founded the flagship family business, East Africa Spectre, a manufacturer of gas cylinders for Kenya and the East African region. Subsequently, he founded Spectre International. Because of his father Jaramogi Oginga Odinag’s opposition politics and the resulting backlash against him and his family, Raila Odinga completed his secondary school education at the Herder- Institut, Leipzig, Germany, before proceeding to the Magdeburg College of Advanced Technology, completing a Master of Science Degree (Mechanical Engineering) in 1969. He then returned to Kenya and taught at the University of Nairobi’s Department of Mechanical Engineering between 1970 and 1974. He resigned from the university and was appointed to the Kenya Bureau of Standards, which he was instrumental in establishing. He continued running the family business while also devoting himself to the struggle for democracy in Kenya, for which he was detained without trial for most of the years 1983-1991. He became a founder member of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD, later FORD-Kenya) in 1991, the National Democratic Party in 1996, the Liberal Democratic Party in 1997, and in 2005 his present political vehicle, the Orange Democratic Party of Kenya, of which he was elected party leader and presidential candidate in 2007. In 2013, he led his party into a coalition with other parties to form the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy on whose ticket he ran for President. He challenged the election results in the Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of his opponents. He accepted the verdict and took up the leadership of the Opposition.