Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga died aged 80 at a hospital in India where he was receiving medical treatment, news outlets reported, bringing his supporters out to the streets to mourn in Kenya.
Odinga, who unsuccessfully ran for the presidency five times, was a veteran opposition leader who played a defining role in Kenyan politics for decades. He rejected the results of each vote he lost and in 2007 led protests that plunged Kenya into one of its biggest ever political crises. His legacy as a democracy activist “helped seal two of the country’s most important reforms,” noted Reuters, pointing to multiparty democracy in 1991 and a new constitution in 2010.
Tributes have poured in for Odinga: Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said his death had “left a silence that echoes across our nation,” while Kenyan President William Ruto visited Odinga’s family home in Nairobi to express his condolences.