Former Prime minister Raila Odinga is a prominent Kenyan politician and among those who will be on the ballot for presidential elections on August 9.
Currently, his biggest headache is settling on who will be his running mate after managing to gather support from most parts of the country and he is even enjoying the backing of the sitting head of state, Uhuru Kenyatta.
His political journey has had lots of low moments including his detention in the 1980s and losing presidential elections a number of times with rumors having it that he has been rigged out.
He served as an MP of Lang’ata between 1992-2007 and this year he will be making his fifth attempt on the country’s top position.
Raila made his first attempt at the presidency in 1997 under a National Development Party (NDP) ticket but he lost. In 2002 he did not vie for the seat but rallied support for retired president Mwai Kibaki. He made another attempt at the presidency in 2007 but he lost again and disputed the results. The country was however thrown into a Post Election Violence. He made other attempts in 2013 and 2017 respectively but all were unsuccessful.
The former prime minister also served as a minister of energy towards the end of Moi’s era and aside from politics, the 77-year old is also a successful businessman.
His success in the various fields can as well be attributed to the kind of background that he has, both family and education.
Raila was born in Maseno, Nyanza in 1945. He began his education at Kisumu union primary and proceeded to Maranda Highschool where he studied until 1962.
His father, Oginga Odinga, transferred him to Germany in 1962 and he attended Herder institution, which was part of University of Leipzig. The institution trained foreign students the German language.
In 1965, the ODM leader received a scholarship and went to the Technical College of Magdeburg where he graduated with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and Welding
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