President William Ruto was walking to his office at about 6.30am when his phone rang. The caller was Dr Oburu Oginga, elder brother of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
“‘There is a problem,’ Youth Leader told me. ‘I think I have lost my brother,’” Dr Ruto recalled.
Dr Oginga refers to himself as Youth Leader.
It was October 15 last year. Mr Odinga had died in India, where he had travelled for treatment weeks earlier. Dr Ruto, recounting the morning in an interview with the Nation at the weekend, said he had spoken to his former rival only days before and had been told he was discharged from hospital and was going home to rest.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Odinga’s sister, Ms Ruth Adhiambo, called as well. The family explained that Mr Odinga had woken that morning, undertaken some exercise, and then his condition deteriorated. “His life could not be saved,” the President said.
Rivals-cum-partners
The two men had known each other for decades, moving between rivalry and partnership more than once.
“We started on different sides when we were in Kanu; they were in Ford and all the others,” Dr Ruto recalled. “We came and met in ODM; we forged ODM together. I went out of my way to support him, and he was a great team leader, but then again, we parted ways.”
President Willam Ruto and ODM party leader Raila Odinga during the MoU signing event at KICC on March 7, 2025.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
In the weeks before his death, Dr Ruto said, the relationship had entered an unusually close phase. There were phone calls. There were meetings. There was dinner at Mr Odinga’s home. “When there were challenges in the country, Raila came forward and said we must stabilise the country,” said Dr Ruto, describing Mr Odinga as having stood “on the right side of history” in defending democracy.
Dr Ruto recalled receiving a call from Mr Odinga saying he was not feeling well and wanted to see him. Mr Odinga visited him at State House, Nairobi, and the two discussed Kenya’s future, among other things. “I noticed that the former Prime Minister was visibly unwell,” Dr Ruto said.
Mr Odinga later travelled to Malindi after doctors advised him to seek a warmer climate. The two continued speaking by phone. When Mr Odinga told him he was returning to Nairobi, Dr Ruto did not ask him to go to State House. He went to him instead, arriving at Mr Odinga’s residence at around 7.30pm. “I met [with] him and his wife and children,” he recounted.
They had dinner and talked. Mr Odinga told him he wanted to seek a second medical opinion because he was not recovering. “I encouraged him to do so,” Dr Ruto said.
A few days later, Mr Odinga travelled to India with his daughter, doctors and others. The two remained in contact. President Ruto said Mr Odinga initially sounded hopeful, “telling me that several doctors had examined him and he believed they had found the right treatment”. Then came news that he had been discharged, and that he intended to rest.
President William Ruto (left) and Raila Odinga at the African Union Commission headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 15, 2025.
Photo credit: Pool
That was the last update Dr Ruto had before the walk to his office, the ringing phone, and Dr Oginga’s voice on the line.
In the hours that followed, Dr Ruto became involved in arrangements to bring Mr Odinga’s body home from India, including discussions with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he said had known the former Prime Minister personally.
For Dr Ruto, the hardest part was the suddenness of it. Only days earlier, the two men had been talking about the country’s future. Then he was gone.
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