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Jaramogi Odinga; Kenya’s First Vice President

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Jaramogi Odinga, 76, who helped bring multi-party politics back to Kenya. Odinga, the country’s first vice president, was among the opposition leaders to President Daniel Moi who successfully pressed for additional political parties and formed two of them. In 1992, in the country’s first multi-party election in 26 years, Odinga finished third in balloting that reelected Moi. He was named minister for home affairs in 1962 and became the country’s first vice president in 1964. He resigned from the government in 1966 and formed a socialist party that was later outlawed. In later years Odinga was seen as a crusader for democracy and human rights, but his flirtation with communism in the 1960s derailed his political career for more than a decade. On Thursday in Kisimu, west of Nairobi, of a heart attack.

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