Jan 2 (Reuters) - Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga and his party were accused of unleashing "genocide" in Kenya as the death toll from tribal violence that followed the normally stable country's disputed election passed 300.

Here are key facts about Odinga:

* Born on Jan. 2, 1945, in Maseno, west Kenya, Odinga comes from the Luo tribe, one of the country's biggest.

* His father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a nationalist hero who was Kenya's first vice president after independence from Britain in 1963, went into opposition against President Jomo Kenyatta and his successor President Daniel arap Moi.

* Odinga is seen as a firebrand, especially after a revelation that he was involved in an attempted coup against Moi in 1982. Now he projects a more moderate, business-friendly face.

* Educated in communist East Germany, Odinga named his first son Fidel Castro. Representing Nairobi's teeming Kibera slum, Odinga sees himself as a champion of the poor. But he has done well out of his large business empire.

* He spent 9 years in jail -- 6 of them in solitary -- under Moi for protesting at one-party rule. He was charged with treason over the coup attempt before fleeing to Norway.

* He helped President Mwai Kibaki win power in 2002 and served for three years in the cabinet before being sacked for campaigning against him in a constitutional referendum in 2005.

* In the 2007 election, Odinga accused Kibaki of vote rigging -- an allegation that fuelled ethnic riots. (Editing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference unit)

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