{{Short description|Kenyan banker and entrepreneur}} {{Infobox person | name = Mary Okelo | image = | caption = | birth_name = Elizabeth Mary Awori | birth_date = | birth_place = Busia, Kenya | relatives = {{ubl|Aggrey Awori (brother)|Moody Awori (brother)|Wycliffe Wasya Work Awori (brother)}} | education = {{ubl|Makerere University (BA)|}} | occupation = Banker | spouse = Pius Alois Okelo }}
'''Mary Okelo''' (born Elizabeth Mary Awori) is a Kenyan banker and entrepreneur, best known for becoming the first African woman bank manager for Barclays while working at the Barclays Bank of Kenya in 1977. Okelo is also known for co-founding the private education institution Makini Schools, and for her roles as senior adviser to the African Development Bank and the vice-president of Women's World Banking.
Okelo is the sister of Ugandan politician Aggrey Awori and Kenyan politicians Moody and Wycliffe Wasya Work Awori.
==Early life== Born Elizabeth Mary Awori in the town of Busia on the border on Kenya and Uganda, Okelo is the fourteenth of seventeen children of Anglican minister Jeremiah Musungu Awori and nurse Mariamu Awori. Her siblings include Ugandan politician Aggrey Awori and Kenyan politicians Moody and Wycliffe Wasya Work Awori.<ref name=chap7>{{cite book |last1=Yenjela |first1=David Wafula |editor1-last=Amutabi |editor1-first=Maurice Nyamanga |editor2-last=Akuno |editor2-first=Emily Achieng' |editor3-last=Ojwang |editor3-first=Humphrey J. |editor4-last=Fleuss |editor4-first=Dannica |year=2024 |chapter=Chapter 7. Mary Okelo: The Daughter of Canon Awori and Pioneer of Private School Education in Kenya |title=African Women and Intellectual Leadership: Life Stories from Western Kenya |publisher=Routledge |location=London |pages=68–76 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9781003294924 |isbn=9781003294924 |oclc=1416597764}}</ref><ref name=kewobi>{{cite web |last1=Wangari |first1=Stephanie |date=5 October 2021 |title=Kenya Women Billionaires: The Story of Mary Okello |url=https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/69112-kenya-women-billionaires-story-mary-okello |website=Kenyans.co.ke |language=en |access-date=20 September 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230728124504/https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/69112-kenya-women-billionaires-story-mary-okello |archive-date=28 July 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=interview>{{cite interview |interviewer1-last=McGee |interviewer1-first=Henry |date=27 February 2015 |title=Interview with Dr. Elizabeth Mary Okelo |work=Creating Emerging Markets Oral History Collection |location=Boston, Massachusetts, USA |publisher=Harvard Business School |url=https://www.hbs.edu/creating-emerging-markets/Documents/transcripts/Okelo_Mary_webv4.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121125321/https://www.hbs.edu/creating-emerging-markets/Documents/transcripts/Okelo_Mary_webv4.pdf |archive-date=21 January 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref>
== Education == As a child, Okelo attended Nambale Anglican Church Primary School, Butere Church Mission Society School, and Alliance Girls High School, becoming one of only thirteen female Kenyan students selected to participate in advanced pre-university courses at the latter school.<ref name="chazen">{{cite journal |last1=Bauer |first1=Andrew |last2=Brust |first2=Frederick |last3=Hubbert |first3=Joshua |year=2002 |title=Expanding Private Education in Kenya: Mary Okelo and the Makini Schools |journal=Chazen Web Journal of International Business |pages=1–19 |language=en |issn=1548-6133 |url=https://business.columbia.edu/sites/default/files-efs/pubfiles/87/Kenya_Makini.pdf |via=Columbia Business School |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250920061408/https://business.columbia.edu/sites/default/files-efs/pubfiles/87/Kenya_Makini.pdf |archive-date=20 September 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="wwb">{{cite web |date=14 March 2025 |title=Celebrating Mary's Legacy: An Explorer for Financial Empowerment in Africa |url=https://www.womensworldbanking.org/insights/making-finance-work-for-women-for-45-years-dr-mary-okelo/ |website=Women's World Banking |language=en |access-date=20 September 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250707223741/https://www.womensworldbanking.org/insights/making-finance-work-for-women-for-45-years-dr-mary-okelo/ |archive-date=7 July 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref> After graduating high school, Okelo spent a year working as a prison guard before pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at Makerere University in Uganda.<ref name="chap7" /><ref name="kewobi" />
==Career== Okelo joined the Barclays Bank management trainee program in July 1967 after several unsuccessful applications, becoming the first African woman to enter the program.<ref name=kewobi/><ref name=wwb/><ref name=nation>{{cite web |last1=Obiria |first1=Moraa |date=20 July 2023 |title=How Dr Mary Okelo paved the way for women in banking |url=https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/how-dr-mary-okelo-paved-the-way-for-women-in-banking-4308650 |website=Daily Nation |language=en |access-date=20 September 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721060400/https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/how-dr-mary-okelo-paved-the-way-for-women-in-banking-4308650 |archive-date=21 July 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The training involved two years of diploma studies in banking at the British Institute of Bankers in London, where she lived from 1967 to 1969.<ref name=nation/> Upon returning to Kenya Okelo began working at Barclays as a manager's assistant, later being promoted to sub-manager. In 1973 she was offered a promotion to become the manager at a Barclays branch in Nakuru, however, Okelo turned this promotion down in order to remain with her family in Nairobi.<ref name=nation/>
In 1977 she was appointed manager of the then-struggling Westlands Barclays branch, becoming the first woman in Kenya to hold such a position.<ref name="chap7" /><ref name="kewobi" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sanya |first1=Brenda Nyandiko |last2=Lutomia |first2=Anne Namatsi |editor1-last=Koster |editor1-first=Mickie Mwanzia |editor2-last=Kithinji |editor2-first=Michael Mwenda |editor3-last=Rotich |editor3-first=Jerono P. |year=2016 |chapter=Chapter 11. Feminism Unfinished: Towards Gender Justice and Women's Rights in Kenya |title=Kenya After 50: Reconfiguring Education, Gender, and Policy |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |series=African Histories and Modernities |pages=229, 244 |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781137574633 |isbn=978-1-349-56458-3 |issn=2634-5773 |oclc=988636866}}</ref> While working at Barclays Okelo founded the Barclays Bank Women's Association to support female bankers.<ref name="Palgrave">{{cite book |last1=Ojiambo |first1=Peter O. |last2=Njeru |first2=Margaret W. |editor1-last=Nasong'o |editor1-first=Wanjala S. |editor2-last=Amutabi |editor2-first=Maurice N. |editor3-last=Falola |editor3-first=Toyin |year=2023 |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Kenyan History |chapter=Chapter 16. The Influence of Pioneer Schools and Makerere University on Kenya’s Post-Colonial Development |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Cham, Switzerland |pages=187–197 |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-09487-3_16 |isbn=978-3-031-09487-3 |oclc=1368190289}}</ref> In the early 1980s she co-founded the Kenya Women's Finance Trust (KFWT), an affiliate of Women's World Banking, with her sister Christine Hayanga.<ref name="chazen" /><ref name="wwb" /><ref name="nation" /><ref name="wwbbook">{{cite book |last1=Walsh |first1=Michaela |last2=de Gonzaga |first2=Shamina |last3=Clemente |first3=Lilia C. |author1-link=Michaela Walsh (banker) |year=2012 |title=Founding a Movement: Women's World Banking, 1975-1990 |publisher=Cosimo Books |location=New York |language=en |pages=96–142 |isbn=9781616407179 |oclc=880714771}}</ref> Okelo worked full-time at Barclays until 1985, when she was appointed the first African regional representative to Women's World Banking.<ref name="kewobi" /><ref name="chazen" /><ref name="Palgrave" />
In 1987 she moved to Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire to serve as the first female senior adviser to the president of the African Development Bank,<ref name="chazen" /><ref name="Palgrave" /> and in 1990 she was appointed the vice-president of Women's World Banking.<ref name="kewobi" /><ref name="wwbbook" />
In 1978 Okelo and her husband established Riara Gardens Academy, a private nursery school that initially served 8 students and operated out of Okelo's home.<ref name=kewobi/><ref name=interview/><ref name=chazen/> Later renamed the Makini School, the operation expanded throughout the 1980s to cover all levels of primary education after erecting a dedicated school building in 1982. In the 1990s the operation split into three schools (Makini Lower Primary School, Makini Middle Primary School, and Makini Upper Primary School) occupying separate buildings and becoming collectively known as Makini Schools. Makini Schools expanded to offer secondary education in 1997, and an International Baccalaureate (IB) program was launched in 1998.<ref name=chazen/>
==Personal life== Okelo met her husband, Pius Alois Okelo, during her banking studies in London.<ref name=chazen/> The pair married in 1968, in a London wedding attended by Okelo's siblings and the then Kenyan High Commissioner to Britain Josephat Karanja,<ref name=chap7/> and had three children.<ref name=chazen/> Pius Okelo was killed in a car accident in 2004.<ref name=kewobi/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okelo, Mary}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:20th-century Kenyan businesswomen Category:Makerere University alumni Category:Kenyan bankers Category:Women bankers Category:School founders Category:Living people