Professor George Magoha became Education Cabinet Secretary on March 27, 2019, appointed by former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The burly professor came with a reputation as one who shakes things up wherever he goes.
He had done it at the University of Nairobi as the vice-chancellor and also as chair of the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec), where he had just been plucked from.
And change he did.
His tenure at the helm of the important docket will be scrutinised, for he was in charge during a significant period in the history of education in Kenya.
A lot has been happening in both basic and higher education and his tentacles have been all over, from launching ECDE classrooms to dissolving university councils he deemed errant.
Prof Magoha extolled his efforts (while chair of Knec) to curb runaway cheating in national exams.
This was done in conjunction with his equally bullish Cabinet colleague, Dr Fred Matiang’i, who was then heading the Education docket.
They roped in the ICT ministry and, once more, our examinations have regained respectability. The new administration has been urged not drop the ball.
Prof Magoha has been a strong defender of the competency-based curriculum (CBC), whose implementation has drawn mixed reactions from stakeholders. Its opponents have trashed it but the professor, whose specialisation is in the medical field, never failed to state that “CBC is here to stay!”
At the end of the Jubilee administration, while some of his colleagues in the Cabinet quit joining politics and others scheme to join the next government Magoha happened to be the only one who has repeatedly said he was done.
Before his untimely death on January 24, Magoha had taken up academic administration, serving as a professor of surgery at Maseno University School of Medicine, in Kisumu County.
This was done in conjunction with his equally bullish Cabinet colleague, Dr Fred Matiang’i, who was then heading the Education docket. They roped in the ICT ministry and, once more, our examinations have regained respectability. The new administration must not drop the ball.
Biography
Magoha was born in 1952.
After his primary education in Yala and Nairobi He joined Starehe Boys Centre and Strathmore College for his High School education in Kenya.
He then proceeded to the University of Lagos in Nigeria where he studied Medicine.
He furthered his studies in Surgery and Urology at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, Ireland and Royal Postgraduate Medical School Hammersmith Hospital, London, Department of Urology, where he earned various academic awards.
Magoha trained in executive management at the Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, and has many international professional honours and awards.
Locally, the awards include Moran of the Burning Spear (MBS) and Elder of the Burning Spear (EBS).
Magoha joined the University of Nairobi as a Lecturer in Urological Surgery in 1988 and rose through the ranks to become a full Professor of Surgery in 2000.
He served in various administrative positions at the University rising from Chairman of the Academic Department of Surgery in 1999, Dean of the School of Medicine, Principal of the College of Health Sciences, Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Administration and Finance to Vice-Chancellor in January 2005.
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