After serving under seven Education ministers, Prof George Magoha,has now turned to be the boss after the new cabinet reshuffle announced by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday.
For the decade he was at the helm of Nairobi University, Prof Magoha largely brought order to Kenya’s premier university that was once notorious for frequent student riots at the slightest excuse.
Critics have, however, described his management style as dictatorial. But the scholar and medical doctor has no apologies to make.
In the 10 years he has been at the helm, he said, the thinking that the university is a quasi-government project where one can take time, lobby and do funny things has gradually changed.
But the scholar and medical doctor has no apologies to make.
“That is how I was trained at Starehe Boys’ Centre. It is not dictatorship. It is firmness with a goal. For us, our cup is never half-empty. It is always close to being full,” he told Lifestyle in an interview this week.
The result is that the accounts of the university, which he found unaudited for six years, are now up-to-date.
For Prof Magoha, a university engaging in functions like setting up commercial enterprises and the Module II (parallel) programmes is not at all bad as long as the core business of academics is not compromised.
His research on male erectile dysfunction was used during the invention of Viagra and Cialis, both drugs used to treat erection dysfunction.
He has published 59 research papers, mostly on sexual dysfunction, in reputed international and national journals.
He was appointed in 2005 after acting as VC the previous year — when Prof George Saitoti was the Education minister. Since then, Prof Magoha has worked with Dr Noah Wekesa, Mr William Ruto (now the Deputy President), Dr Sally Kosgei, Prof Hellen Sambili and Prof Margaret Kamar.
Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, the current Education Cabinet Secretary, was once Prof Magoha’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor at UoN.