A 24-year-old Kenyan, Maryanne Oketh was named the winner of the 42nd edition of the popular reality TV series; Survivor.


The seminary student from Ajax, Ontario. was awarded by the jury in a 7-1-0 vote over her competitors Mike Turner and Romeo Escobar.

Maryanne is the second black woman to win the series and the second Canadian to win the same.

She surprised the jury by whipping out the only true secret idol in the game, one which she did not even need to use to reach the end.

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That, coupled with her tactical move to oust the master manipulator Omar Zaheer at the final six propelled her to her victory.

"I have an idol!" But even with an idol, even at final Tribal, you have one shot to let someone know, and you have all the power. So I was really just waiting for a moment when it would come. It didn't come in the first stages. I felt this would come when Jeff was giving us the time to talk about our strategic avenue,” Maryanne said.

Maryanne’s win was a turnaround for her since at the beginning of the season she was considered a nuisance and an afterthought by her tribesmates.


She expressed her satisfaction with the Survivor games and said she would go back and do it over again.

“I think that Survivor is something that's so addicting. You always wanna play it. But I think right now for me, I don't want Survivor to just be something cool, like a high in my life right now that I always look back onto because there's so much. I'm 24, I'm super young, and there are so many more highs that you can find in life,” Maryanne said.

“So right now in the same stage of life that I'm in, I don't think it's wise for me to go back and play again. But you know, five years, 10 years when there's enough all-winners and Jeff kind of rings his phone. I'll be like, "Jeff, yes. I'll go to Fiji! Please, like put me in.”


Survivor is the American version of the international Survivor reality competition television franchise, itself derived from the Swedish television series Expedition Robinson.