NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 24, President William Ruto has mourned Professor George Magoha, who died on Tuesday evening, describing him as a towering giant in the academia.
Magoha passed on at the Nairobi Hospital where he was rushed after suffering a cardiac arrest at home.
“Prof. Magoha is a towering giant of our time, a great man who stood tall in the academy, where he excelled in learning, teaching and research, as well as in administration,” the president said, hailing him for leading a “robust turnaround interventions at the University of Nairobi and the Kenya National Examinations Council.”
A statement from Nairobi Hospital said he passed on after suffering a cardiac arrest.
“It is with great regret that we announce the sudden and untimely demise of Prof. George Magoha this evening at the Nairobi Hospital,” a statement from the hospital’s CEO James Nyamongo stated.
The statement said Magoha collapsed at home before he was rushed to the hospital.
“Efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful,” it said.
The official who was quoting a family member said Magoha had been unwell after experiencing high blood pressure and other health complications.
“He has been unwell, but today he got worse,” he said.
Magoha’s death comes at a time he was preparing to bury his brother who passed on recently.
Magoha served as Cabinet Secretary for Education in former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government.
Prior to this appointment, Magoha chaired the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) from 2016 to 2019 which he joined from the University of Nairobi where he had been the Vice-Chancellor since 2005 to 2015.
Upon leaving the government, Magoha was named a professor of surgery at Maseno University School of Medicine.
