Opposition Chief and AU High Envoy for Infrastructure and Development Raila Odinga is today celebrating his 74th birthday.
Raila Amolo Odinga (born 7 January 1945) is a Kenyan politician who served as Prime Minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013, and has served as Leader of the Opposition since 2013.
He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata from 1992 to 2013. He served in the Cabinet of Kenya as Minister of Energy from 2001 to 2002, and as Minister of Roads, Public Works and Housing from 2003 to 2005.
Odinga was appointed High Representative for Infrastructure Development at the African Union Commission in 2018.
He was the main opposition candidate in the 2007 presidential election, running against incumbent Mwai Kibaki.
In the subsequent presidential election 5 years later he placed second against Uhuru Kenyatta, garnering 5,340,546 votes, which represented 43.28% of the total votes cast.
He made another run for the presidency in August 2017 against Uhuru Kenyatta and lost [4] after the chairman of the electoral body declared Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner with 54% of the votes cast to Raila’s 43%.
This outcome was eventually annulled by the Supreme Court following findings that the election was marred by “illegalities and irregularities”. A subsequent fresh election ordered by the Court was won by Uhuru Kenyatta when Raila declined to participate citing inadequate reforms to enable a fair process in the repeat poll.
Son of the first Vice President of Kenya, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, he draws a large chunk of his support from various regions in Kenya, most notably the Coastal Region and his native former Nyanza Province.
Raila is commonly known as “Baba”, concidentally: he was an MP at the same time as his father between 1992 and 1994. Other nicknames that have been associated with the premier are such as “Nyundo” which is hammer in Kiswahili, “Tinga” which means tractor in Kiswahili a symbol of his National Development Party, NDP, “Agwambo” meaning a man who is unpredictable and ‘BABA’ which means the political father.