Life Story
Raila Odinga, a member of the Joluo ethnic group, was born at the Anglican Church Missionary Society Hospital in Maseno, Kisumu District, Nyanza Province,on 7 January 1945.
His parents were Mary Juma Odinga and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, who served as the first Vice President of Kenya under Jomo Kenyatta.
He went to Kisumu Union Primary, Maranda primary in Bondo and Maranda High School, where he studied until 1962, when he was transferred by his father to Germany.
Odinga returned to Kenya in 1970 and in 1971 he founded the Standard Processing Equipment Construction & Erection Ltd (later renamed East African Spectre), the only company manufacturing liquid petroleum gas cylinders in Kenya.
In 1974, Odinga was appointed group standards manager of the Kenya Bureau of Standards. After holding this position for four years, he was promoted to be the deputy director in 1978, a post he held until his 1982 detention.
Funeral / Memorial Service
Odinga died from a cardiac arrest at the Devamatha Hospital at Koothattukulam in Kerala, India, on 15 October 2025, at the age of 80.
He had collapsed while taking a routine morning walk at the Sreedhareeyam Ayurvedic Eye Hospital and Research Centre, where he had been seeking medical treatment for diabetes, hypertension and chronic kidney disease.
Odinga was buried next to his father on 19 October 2025 at his residence in Bondo.
Memorial Resources
Videos, photographs and documents shared in memory and celebration of this life.
Videos
You tube video link
see highlights of the funeral
Documents
📕
Funeral Program
You can find the eulogy of the late Rt. Hon Raila Odinga here
PDF
View Document
Tributes & Condolences
Messages shared in memory of
Rt. Hon Raila Amolo.
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He did a good job in politics