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He held the post until 2013 when he ran for president, losing to Kenyatta by a very narrow margin — and losing his court challenge of the result.
Odinga once again claimed fraud after August’s vote, but this time the Supreme Court ruled in his favour, annulling the presidential election due to “irregularities and illegalities”.
A decade on, the violence of 2007 still casts a shadow over Kenya’s political landscape and tribal resentment endures.
Odinga’s backers among the Luos believe they are being denied political power by a cabal of Kikuyu elites currently led by Kenyatta.
Odinga argues that a fair election would result in his victory, and his supporters believe him.
– A polarising politician –
While his supporters consider Odinga a much-needed social reformer, for his detractors he is a rabble-rousing populist unafraid to play the tribal card.
He is renowned as a firebrand speaker capable of galvanising a crowd with his oratory. But Odinga also has a reputation for being stubborn and sometimes short-tempered.
For some observers, he has lost some of his crowd-pleasing skills, which some attribute to ill health and advancing years.
With his speech notes in hand he often stumbles and labours over his words — especially in English. Speaking off-the-cuff in his native Swahili however, he retains the ability to inspire.
Raised an Anglican, he later converted to evangelicalism. In 2009, he was baptised in a Nairobi swimming pool by a self-proclaimed prophet. The Bible crept into Odinga’s campaign this year with his repeated promise to lead his followers to Canaan, the mythical “promised land”.
He studied engineering in communist former East Germany and named his eldest son Fidel, who died in 2015, after the Cuban revolutionary.
However observers say the “socialist” and “communist” labels he was given were more an attempt to discredit him by the Moi regime than an accurate reflection of his leanings.
After returning to Kenya in 1970 Odinga set up as a businessman before following his father into politics.
Nowadays he describes himself as a social democrat who wants to fight inequality.
Married, Odinga has three surviving children: Rosemary, Raila Junior and Winnie.
