Whenever the late Orie Rogo Manduli stepped into a room, she oozed confidence, class and a great sense of humour, drawing the attention of all those who were around her.
Her towering headdresses and her sense of fashion were her trademarks, often leaving heads turning and women referring to her when they wanted a similar style.
A woman of many firsts and feats, she would be described by many Kenyans and especially women who came to love and admire her courage.
Manduli was the first woman chair of the Non-Governmental Organisations Council and the first woman of African descent to participate in the East African Safari Rally in 1974 and 1975.
In a previous interview, Manduli narrated that she was angry that the Country hosted Safari Rally annually and the few women who participated were all foreigners. Hence, in a bid to change this, she enrolled in 1974.
"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," Manduli told a local publication.
Describing herself as 'the lioness in her cage', Manduli lived up to her name, especially when she was embroiled in a leadership wrangle with then Culture and Heritage minister Najib Balala in 2005.
At the time, Balala had to block all from entering or leaving the premises and armed policemen stood guard, allowing journalists to speak with Manduli through a small opening on the metal gate.
Her defiance could still be smelt outside the gate. She was not budging.
"My advice to women seeking public positions is that they should be really thick-skinned and develop their own personae. They must know who they are and why they are. And where they are going," she advised.
On the numerous times that Manduli was interviewed, she shied from telling her age, using the cliché that 'ladies don't tell their age.' In fact, she emitted years which she was in school to avoid quick calculations from nozy individuals.
She was married to her first husband Ondieki and together, they got three daughters - Elizabeth, Allison and Janice before they divorced after five years.
"When you're incompatible, I tell you it's tough. It doesn't work. It doesn't matter what you cook, the man won't taste it. It doesn't matter what you wear, he won't even see it," she told the Nation.
In 1980, she got re-married to Norman Manduli, a Zambian and cousin to former Zambian President Fredrick Chiluba.
The politician met the husband while in the line of duty. She was a journalist who had been sent by BBC to interview Joshua Nkomo (Zimbabwean freedom fighter). He, however, passed on in 2003.
