Orie Rogo Manduli, Kenyan teacher who never stepped in class

Renowned politician and the first Kenyan woman rally driver Ambassador Orie Rogo Manduli has died, but her personality and lifestyle legacy lives on.

According to the family, Manduli died at her Riverside home in Nairobi on Wednesday.

Manduli was born Mary Orie Rogo in Maseno to Gordon Rogo and Zeruiah Adhiambo, both educators.

Although she was born Mary Orie Rogo, she changed her name to Mary Orie Rogo Ondieki after her marriage. She would later drop Mary from her name.
She is the first woman of African descent to participate in the East African Safari Rally. That was in 1974.

Orie Rogo Manduli stormed the public limelight while still in high school when she was crowned Miss Kenya, aged 16. During a past interview with a local daily, she revealed that she attended Ng’iya Girls High School, then Butere Girls and then Machakos Girls.

She was a trained teacher but never set a foot in class to teach as she got married immediately after graduating from Machakos Teachers College.

Manduli, who was known for her massive head scarfs and African style dressing, was the first Kenyan woman to participate in the East African Safari rally in 1974 and 1975.

She has four children, three daughters Elizabeth, Allison, and Janice from her first marriage and a son Katyana from her second marriage.

She remarried in 1980 to Misheck Norman Manduli, a descendant of the Lunda dynasty — one of Zambia’s royal families. He was 30 years older than her.

Manduli then proceeded to Canada with her husband where she pursued and graduated with a diploma in office management.

The couple was blessed with three children – all girls – before getting divorced after five years of marriage.

In 1980, she married a Zambian named Norman Manduli, hence the second name change to Orie Rogo Manduli. Norman died in 2003.