Kenyan billionaire Manu Chandaria to build a centre honoring late prime minister Raila Odinga

The Kenya School of Government and Kenyan industrialist Manu Chandaria have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish an institution honoring former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who died earlier this year, the two parties announced this week.

The Raila Odinga and Chandaria Regional Centre for Innovation, Leadership and Governance is intended to serve as a lasting tribute to Odinga's decades of political service while functioning as an active training institution for current and future leaders across the region. Chandaria, who described Odinga as a personal friend, said the centre's mandate extends deliberately beyond any single political affiliation. "We are celebrating a great Kenyan, Raila Amolo Odinga," Chandaria said at the signing ceremony. "This academy will go a long way in shaping leaders in politics, whether they are in government or in opposition. We require leaders with great hearts irrespective of where they stand politically."

The partnership extends a long-running pattern in Chandaria's philanthropic activity, which has consistently combined direct financial commitments with formal institutional partnerships in Kenyan education and leadership development. Through the Chandaria Foundation, he has funded innovation and incubation centres at Kenyatta University and KCA University in recent years, including a Sh20 million ($150,000) business incubation hub at KCA University signed in February 2026, designed to give young entrepreneurs mentorship, training and early access to funding.

The Raila Odinga centre represents a larger and more politically significant commitment than Chandaria's prior university partnerships, given the stature of the figure it is named after and its placement under the Kenya School of Government, the state institution responsible for training civil servants and public leaders. Odinga served as Kenya's Prime Minister from 2008 to 2013 under the coalition government formed after the disputed 2007 election, and remained one of the country's most consequential opposition and coalition figures until his death earlier this year. He led Kenya's main opposition movement through multiple election cycles and played a central role in the political settlements, including the 2010 constitution, that have shaped the country's modern governance structure.

The centre's establishment comes as separate state institutions advance other memorial projects tied to Odinga's legacy. The National Museums of Kenya issued a tender on June 16 inviting contractors to bid on a Sh30 million ($232,000) mausoleum project at Kang'o ka Jaramogi in Siaya County, where Odinga was buried, alongside renovation works at the adjacent Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Mausoleum. That project, separate from the Chandaria-backed leadership centre, includes a research centre, library, digital archives and an amphitheatre, with bids due by June 25.

Chandaria, 95, is one of Kenya's most prominent industrialists and philanthropists, having built his career through the Comcraft Group, a privately held manufacturing conglomerate with operations spanning steel, aluminium and plastics manufacturing across multiple African countries. He was awarded the Order of the Burning Spear by the Kenyan government in recognition of his contributions to industry and philanthropy, and has been a fixture of Kenyan business and civic life for more than six decades. His foundation's giving has historically concentrated on education, health infrastructure and youth entrepreneurship programmes, with the Raila Odinga centre marking one of his most politically prominent commitments to date.