President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria. He had lost three presidential elections in a row before he was finally elected the President of Africa's most populous nation in 2015. [Photo: newsweek.com]With the announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta by IEBC on Monday as the duly elected President following October 26 repeat presidential poll, it became official that NASA leader Raila Odinga had lost his sixth presidential contest.Odinga first contested in 1997, followed by 2007, 2013, August 2013 and recently in October 2017, where he withdrew controversially leaving his main competitor to have a walk in the park.Having lost five contests in almost a row, many have been suggesting that Odinga retires from politics and allow someone else from his strongholds to try his luck.But did you know that in Africa, it is not only Raila who has lost so many presidential elections in a sequence, though at the moment the Kenyan former Prime Minister leads the pack? Here are other four examples.He unsuccessfully ran for the office of president in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 general elections.In March 2015 general elections, President Muhamadu Buhari of Nigeria won the election, defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. This was his fourth and perhaps the last shot at the Nigerian presidency if age and health is anything to go by.In the nearby Republic of Ghana, the incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo first ran for the presidency in 2008 and again in 2012, but was defeated on both occasions by presidential candidates: John Atta Mills in 2008 and John Dramani Mahama in 2012, according to Wikipedia. Addo was, however, in his third bid for Ghanaian presidency elected in the 2016 elections defeating President Mahama in the first round which was an unprecedented defeat and the first time in the history of Ghana according to Wikipedia.Coming home to East Africa, Uganda's Kizza Besigye who was Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate who was unsuccessful in Uganda's 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 presidential elections, losing all of them to the incumbent Yoweri Museveni, who has been President of Uganda since 26 January 1986.Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai lost in 2002, 2008, 2013, presidential elections to the 94-year-old incumbent President Robert Mugabe who is still seeking re-election in March 2018 presidential poll.

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