Orie Rogo Manduli

Orie Rogo Manduli (née Mary Slessor Orie Rogo, 1948 – 8 September 2021) was a Kenyan diplomat, women's activist and journalist. She won the Miss Kenya beauty pageant in 1964 and in 1974, alongside Sylvia Omino was the first woman of African descent and from Kenya to compete in the East African Safari Rally.

Background and education Born in Maseno, Kisumu County in 1948 to educators Gordon Rogo and Zeruiah Adhiambo, Rogo was one of eight children and was named after Mary Slessor, a Scottish missionary.

She attended Ng'iya Girls School in Siaya, then Butere Girls High School and later Machakos Girls School.

Diplomacy Rogo was involved in the pre-conference lobbying during the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. This earned her a position at the International Council of Women through which she gained diplomatic status by being the body's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Environment Programme and UN-Habitat. She then served as a deputy chair to Gichira Kibara who later left and she was voted in to this position. Dubbed the "Rally Girls", they were able to finish two legs of the rally.

Personal life Soon after her teacher training, Rogo married John Jeremiah Ondieki, a civil servant and emigrated to Canada. Her second marriage in 1980 was to Misheck Norman Manduli, a Zambian national who died in 2003.