The afroalpine vlei rat (Otomys orestes) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae.

It is found in the high moorlands of Kenya.

[1] In Musser and Carleton (2005), this species included a number of subspecies.

Otomys thomasi (Thomas's vlei rat), which was initially described as a species by Osgood in 1910, was included under O. orestes in their work, alongside.

[2] However, Taylor et al. (2011) found that O. thomasi, O. zinki (Mount Kilimanjaro vlei rat) and others subspecies were distinct from O.