Seven things to know about nominated Education CS Prof. George Magoha
Prof. George Magoha is not a new name in the education docket. He has just been nominated the Cabinet Secretary for Education. Magoha will be replacing Amina Mohammed who has been moved to the sports docket following a major cabinet reshuffle.
1. He is a surgeon, Academic Administrator and Professor of Surgery and a Consultant Urologist at the University of Nairobi’s College of Health Sciences. His inaugural lecture was in October 2003 and had published 59 research papers by the end of 2014. His research on male erectile dysfunction was used during the invention of Viagra and Cialis, both drugs used to treat the condition.
2. He worked as the Vice Chancellor of The University Of Nairobi for 10 years, from 2005-2015, where the scholar is credited for bringing order to the university as it was once notorious for frequent student riots.
3. He holds many international and local awards including Moran of the Burning Spear (MBS) and Elder of the Burning Spear (EBS).
4. Born in 1952, Prof. Magoha launched his memoir ‘Tower of Transformational Leadership‘ in 2017 which underscored the need for people to salvage the society from social ills such as nepotism, tribalism, ethnicity and racism. The book also highlighted his appointments as based on merit.
Source:Nation.
5. He is a medic with an extensive educational background having started his primary education in Yala and Nairobi before joining Starehe Boys Centre and Strathmore College. He then proceeded to the University of Lagos in Nigeria where he studied Medicine. He is an alumni of University College Hospital in Ibadan, Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland and Royal Postgraduate Medical School Hammersmith Hospital, London, Department of Urology, where he earned various academic awards. He also underwent executive management training at the Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
6. Professor Magoha has been married to a Nigerian gynaecologist Dr. Odudu Barbara Magoha since 1982 and they have one son, Dr Michael Magoha, a neurosurgeon, who was born in 1985.
7. He enjoys reading, walking, jogging, gardening and listening to classical music.