The moment Raila Odinga fell and died

In Africa, it is quite unusual that key figures who make up a nation’s political heartbeat vanish for days on end without some level of indisposition.

The script is quite similar in many parts of the continent. In 2021, in neighbouring Tanzania, the late President John Pombe Magufuli vanished from public for almost a week, sparking speculation as to the state of his health.

A week later, the news of his death caught many by surprise. A similar scenario played out with Nigeria’s then President (now deceased), Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, in 2010.

For weeks, the whereabouts of Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been a subject of deep discussions both online and offline; with lots of rumours that he was gravely ill. His close associates dismissed the rumours.

His wife too came out to declare that the man was as fit as a fiddle. His brother, Oburu Odinga, was the first close confidant to mention that the ex-PM was handling a health situation but “is getting better.”

Kenyans are now learning that the man who has dominated Kenya’s politics since the 1990s took his last breath. The big question that many are trying to puzzle out is: what killed him?

Ill health is to human as much as the rise of the sun is to the East: it will always come. Through reporting by India’s news channel www.ndtv.com, The Standard has established that Odinga passed on Wednesday morning in Koothattukulam, Kerala, after suffering a massive heart attack during a morning walk.

According to British Health Foundation, a cardiac arrest happens when the electrical system in the heart isn’t working properly.

A heart attack takes place when blood supply to the heart muscle is cut off: an event that usually comes about because of a clot in one the coronary arteries.

According to The Hindu, another news organisation, Odinga died at around 9.00am (about 6.30am Kenyan time); based on information from Sreedhareeyam Ayurvedic Eye Hospital and Research Centre where he was staying.

His body is being kept at Deva Matha Hospital, in Koothattukulam, in India. It is reported that Odinga arrived at the health facility six days ago.

The former prime minister is no stranger to the hospital environment. In June 2010, while serving as Prime Minister, Odinga was abruptly admitted at Nairobi Hospital due to a hard hitting headache.

At the hospital, doctors discovered that he had pressure build-up in the brain, which was causing the headache.

According to Dr Oluoch Olunya, a neurosurgeon who fielded questions from the media at the time, the prime minister had banged his head in one of his vehicle three weeks earlier.

Speaking to Citizen TV in a separate but related interview, Dr. Peter Wanyoike, a brain surgeon working at Kenyatta National Hospital back then, explained that hitting one’s head from a fall or even just hitting a door could cause a vein in the brain to rapture; leading to build up of pressure as a result of blood pooling from the leaky vein in the brain.

“In older people,” Dr Wanyoike added, “a vein can rapture from [simply] stretching.”

In 2011, while still holding office, Odinga flew to Germany for – among other things – a procedure on his eye. He came back from the trip wearing a cap; which many people suspected was protecting his eye after the procedure.

In several public speeches, Odinga has linked the trouble with his right eye to detention and torture he experienced in the 80s and 90s in the hands of the state at Nyayo Torture Chambers.

In June 2017, at the height of the presidential campaign that preceded the general election that year in August, Odinga, flying the NASA flag, was said to have fainted; needing urgent medical care at Mombasa Hospital.

“We cannot rule out fatigue: he [Raila] has been up and down since yesterday. He began in Mtwapa, then went to Ganze, then went to Kilifi and then Malindi,” KTN Reporter Francis Ontomwa reported about the incident live, at the time. Odinga emerged strong from the scare and proceeded with the campaigns.

In March 2021, Odinga was admitted to Nairobi Hospital following an illness that was later confirmed to be Covid-19.

He stayed at the hospital for five days and was discharged after his health stabilized. His press team would then release a clip of the ODM leader performing stretches and executing some exercise routines – his face mask in place.

Whether publicized or not, the different moments Odinga needed hospital admission never quite raised an alarm and spectre as the recent chatter that arose from his absence from the public for a few days.