Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga dies in India, some Indian and Kenyan media report, quoting hospital and police sources.
Odinga, 80, who had arrived at Koothattukulam in Kerala’s Ernakulam district for Ayurvedic treatment, died on Wednesday following a cardiac arrest, news agency Press Trust of India reports, quoting police and hospital authorities.
There has been no official confirmation by the Kenyan government. President William Ruto is set to hold a press conference.
However, Reuters News Agency reports a source in Odinga’s office has confirmed the news.
Odinga collapsed during a morning walk within the premises of the Ayurvedic facility and was rushed to a private hospital in Koothattukulam, where he was pronounced dead around 9.52 am, a spokesman for the Ayurvedic eye hospital told Press Trust of India.
Some African leaders have started sending their condolences with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed saying in a post on X: ‘‘On behalf of the Government of Ethiopia, I extend my sincere condolences on the passing of former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga. May he Rest In Peace.’’
Indian media earlier reported that Odinga, who was undergoing treatment in the southern Indian city of Kochi, suffered a cardiac arrest on Wednesday and was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
As opposition leader, Odinga lost all five of his presidential campaigns, with two of the votes leading to chaotic bouts of bloodletting and recrimination a decade apart.
His work as a democracy activist over the years helped seal two of the country’s most important reforms: multiparty democracy in 1991 and a new constitution in 2010.
He led the protests after the disputed 2007 election that plunged the country into its most serious episode of political violence since independence. About 1,300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes in the battles