Prof. George Magoha. PHOTO | COURTESY

When he died in Nairobi on January 24, after suffering cardiac arrest, former Education Cabinet Secretary George Albert Omore Magoha had packed a lot into his 71 years, including some musical talent.

This man, who held various top public jobs, such as that of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, was quite proud of his early years in Nairobi’s Eastlands.

He started his education at Dr Livingstone Primary School at Jerusalem Estate and later honed his skill as a musician.

He never mentioned what his parents’ reaction to this was, but the man, who would later become a professor of medicine, loved to strum the guitar and his favourite instrument was the bass. Hardly surprising as he would later make a mark as a loud, no-nonsense public servant, who had no scruples about diligently and often abrasively doing his work.

Growing up in Jericho Estate, Magoha was a member of Ochieng Kabaselle’s Lunna Kidi Band that played Luo Rhumba music. He even recorded some songs.

Media cartoon

During a public function in April last year in Kisumu, Prof Magoha caused laughter by admitting that a media cartoon that had depicted him in a Starehe Boys Centre uniform playing the guitar at a live concert, was a true and accurate portrayal of him in his early days in Nairobi.

He said he was a member of Lunna Kidi Band in the early 1970s, where his specialty was playing the bass guitar.

He had just completed his Ordinary Level education at Starehe, then a centre of academic excellence and sharpener of boys’ talents through an outreach programme that founder Geoffrey Griffin treasured.

After Starehe, Magoha joined Strathmore School, also in Nairobi, for his Advanced Level studies. He would later obtain a scholarship and travel to West Africa to study medicine at the University of Lagos. He also studied at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in the United Kingdom, where he specialised as a urologist.

He would later scale the academic ladder, becoming a professor of urology.

He had played with Lunna Kidi as a full-time musician, taking part in several concerts and recordings. He had his own compositions that he later sold for Sh300, which was a tidy sum of money those days.

Sicheki Brothers

In his early years in Jericho, Nairobi, as was common those days, Prof Magoha confessed recently, he was the deputy leader of a notorious boy gang, Sicheki Brothers, that used to bully their peers in the neighbourhood and generally play truant.

Incidentally, his music mentor and band leader, Ochieng Kabaselle, died in 1998, from chest complications. Kabaselle’s illness was induced by the brutality he suffered at the notorious Nyayo House torture chambers in Nairobi following the 1982 coup attempt against then-President Daniel arap Moi. Kabaselle had been recruited into the military because of his music talent. His Lunna Kidi Band is still very much alive today under the leadership of his son, Babu Kabaselle.

University of Nairobi

Prof Magoha, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi from 2005 to 2015, had been preparing for the funeral of his younger brother, who died in Texas, US, when he collapsed at home and later died at the Nairobi Hospital on Tuesday evening. His sudden death stunned the country, as he had only just relinquished his leadership of the Education ministry after the August 9, 2022 General Election.

His brother, Richard Nyabera Magoha, who was also a professor of medicine, died in the US on December 6, 2022, and was to be buried at their rural home in Yala, Gem constituency, Siaya County, on January 28. 

Prof Magoha’s other memorable national contribution was his fight against cheating in national examinations. He was the chairman of the Kenya National Examinations Council from 2016 to 2019. He joined the Knec after leaving the UoN Vice-Chancellor’s job.

Professor of surgery

One of the biggest losers in Prof Magoha’s sudden death is Maseno University’s School of Medicine, which he had joined as a professor of surgery. However, he was yet to begin doing what he loved best, mentoring students and treating patients, especially those needing surgery.

Prof Magoha is survived by his widow and fellow medic, Dr Barbara Odudu Magoha, and their only child, Dr Michael Magoha, a neurosurgeon and university lecturer.

He met and fell in love with Barbara while studying in Nigeria. She is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist. 

Gone forever is a talented man who played the guitar, mentored students and performed delicate surgeries, giving others a new lease of life.

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