The outspoken, always-classy, always-eloquent, and always-beautifully-dressed Orie Rogo Manduli has kicked the bucket.
The former Miss Kenya who became the very first female Rally Driver in Kenya and later on transitioned into politics is dead.
Her family confirmed the death of the outspoken politician who died peacefully at her Riverside home in Nairobi.
In her exclusive interview with The Standard’s Eve Magazine in March 2014, Orie Rogo Manduli expressed her disappointment of few women participating in the Safari Rally and all of them were foreigners. She decided to become the change that she wanted to see thus her being the very first female Rally Driver in the East African Safari Rally in 1974 and 1975.
“I was angry that we were hosting the Safari Rally annually and the few women who were participating were all foreigners. I wanted to prove that Kenyan women, too, could participate in car racing. I do not like to be put in a box or to be stereotyped,” she told the aforementioned magazine.
Among many other things, Orie Rogo Manduli will forever be remembered as a fashion icon who always turned heads with her impressive, somewhat exaggerated head wraps that embraced the African tradition but stylishly someone might add.
She was born in Maseno to a School headmaster and later councilor, one Mr. Gordon Rogo and a teacher at Kisumu Technical College, Mrs. Zeruiah Adhiambo.
Orie Rogo never stepped foot in a classroom, not for a single day despite having trained as a teacher as she became Miss Kenya and the rest like they usually say, is history. Orie Rogo Manduli is indeed a phenomenal woman.
Her first marriage that brought forth her 3 daughters; Elizabeth, Allison, and Janice ended in divorce after 5 years of marriage. She later remarried.
She got married to a Zambian Politician, Norman Manduli, who happened to be the cousin to President Fredrick Chiluba. They lived happily forever after until the death of her husband in 2003.
