Prof. George Albert Omore Magoha

Prof. George Magoha was sworn in as Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Education, on March 26, 2019.  He is a Professor of Transplant Surgery. Before his appointment as Cabinet Secretary, Prof. Magoha was the Chairman of the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) where he served from March 09, 2016 to March 08, 2019. He was also an Honorary Consultant Surgeon and Urologist at Kenyatta National Hospital and Nairobi Hospital.

Before joining KNEC, Prof. Magoha served as Vice-Chancellor, University of Nairobi for 10 years from January 2005 to January 2015. Previously, he was Chairman of the African Network of Scientific and Technological Institutions and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board.

For two years, from August 2013 to August 2015, Prof. Magoha served as the President of the Association of Medical Councils of Africa. He also served as the Chairman of Kenya Association of Urological Surgeons (KAUS) from 1997 to 2013.

While serving as Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, Prof. Magoha was elected President of the Association of African Universities (AAU) in 2011, a position he held until 2013. He has been serving as a member of the AAU executive board since 2005.

Prof. Magoha served as a Commissioner at the Commission for University Education (CUE), previously called Commission for Higher Education (CHE), from 2005 to 2013.

For his exemplary service, Prof. Magoha the Kenya Medical Association honoured Prof Magoha with Distinguished Service Award for services he offered to the Medical Profession in 2008. He represented the African Continent in the Confucius Council in Beijing, China from 2009-2015.

Born in 1952, Prof. Magoha undertook his primary education in Yala, Siaya County and Nairobi County before joining Starehe Boys Centre and Strathmore College for his high school education. 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.

He trained in executive management at the Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, and has many international professional honours and awards. Locally, the awards include Chief of the Order of Burning Spear (CBS), Moran of the Burning Spear (MBS) and Elder of the Burning Spear (EBS).

Prof. Magoha established his career in Surgery at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital as an intern and rose to the position of Senior Resident and Clinical Lecturer in Surgery. He also served as a Lecturer in the same hospital and a Consultant Surgeon in various leading hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria.

Prof. 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.

During his tenure as the Vice-Chancellor he steered the University to achieve “Excellent” rating in the Performance Contracting Evaluation for government institutions. The University of Nairobi is the only government institution that has ever attained an “Excellent” rating to date. The University also experienced phenomenal growth and improved the quality of its academic programmes, infrastructure and work environment under his leadership.

Prof. Magoha has published more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and supervised to completion over 40 Master of Medicine (Surgery) students. He is a member of many professional bodies in Urology and Surgery including British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) and Société Internationale d’Urologie (SIU). He is actively involved in research in male erectile dysfunction; prostate, testicular and penile cancers; circumcision, and HIV/AIDs. He is a fellow of the International College of Surgeons (ICS), African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the Kenya National Academy of Sciences (KNAS), among others.