Orange Democratic Movement party leader Dr Oburu Odinga is clinically dead, according to sources at the Nairobi Hospital and individuals who have visited him at the facility, in a development that has sent shockwaves through Kenya’s political and social circles.
Oburu, who is 85 years old, has been battling a serious illness for the better part of the last year, a health struggle that has taken him to India, the United Kingdom and Dubai in search of specialised medical treatment.
Two weeks ago, he was flown back to the United Kingdom for further treatment before returning to Kenya last week, but his condition appears to have deteriorated rapidly upon his return.
Immediately after arriving back in the country, Oburu, the elder brother of the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, was admitted to the Nairobi Hospital, where sources say he is fighting acute kidney failure and dangerously low blood pressure.
Reports from those close to the situation paint a deeply grave picture, with the senator described as unresponsive and family members said to be keeping a solemn vigil at his bedside as they wait with heavy hearts.
The full extent of his condition was laid bare on Friday when former Nairobi County Governor Mike Sonko visited the ailing senator at the hospital and emerged with words that left little room for optimism.
“Please let us pray for him. He is on life support, his kidneys have failed, and his blood pressure is dangerously low. May God heal him and grant him a miracle,” Sonko said, in an appeal that has since been widely shared across social media as Kenyans respond with an outpouring of prayers and messages for the Odinga family.
Oburu Odinga has had a long and eventful political career, spending much of it in the considerable shadow of his more celebrated brother Raila, whose death earlier this year already dealt a profound blow to the Odinga family and to Kenya’s political landscape.
Should Oburu follow, it would mark the end of an era for one of the most consequential political families in the country’s history.
Kenya is praying.
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