Breaking the news: Inside the hour-long wait to announce Raila Odinga’s death

Amid the melee, social media had already beaten the newsrooms to the story. But with the overabundance of information dissemination, journalism has slowly changed tact.....

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This article recounts the tense hour-long wait in a newsroom before announcing the death of prominent Kenyan politician Raila Odinga on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. Despite news circulating on social media, the newsroom prioritized factual accuracy and verification.

Raila Odinga reportedly died in India while recuperating.
The newsroom experienced significant pressure from the public to report on Odinga's death, which was widely discussed on social media by 9:00 am.
Journalists waited until 10:00 am for confirmed reports, with Citizen TV also breaking the news simultaneously.
Odinga served in parliament from 1992 and unsuccessfully ran for president in 1997, 2007, 2013, 2017, and 2022.