At one time in his life, Prof Magoha was a member of a band dubbed L’Orchestre Luna Success de la Capital. Later the band was renamed to L’Orchestre Lunna Kiddi.
The band was founded by one Ochieng’ Kabbasellah who was a student at Pumwani High School. In the band, Professor George Magoha was a bass guitarist.
Prof Magoha served as the Cabinet Secretary for Education until recently when he left the docket with current Education CS Ezekiel Machogu replacing him.
The last job he heard about was at Maseno University where he was to help students with research in the field of Medicine.
Before becoming a CS, Magoha served as the Vice-Chancellor (VC) at the University of Nairobi and the Chairperson of the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC).
He also served among the top brass at the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Board (KMPDB), the Association of Medical Council of Africa (AMCOA), and the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA).
Magoha was an alumnus of Starehere Boys Centre and Strathmore College where he competed at his O and A levels. Later he joined the University of Nairobi to pursue Medicine. Later he joined the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos where he studied the same course in Nigeria.
In 1978, he became a medical doctor without having to repeat any examinations.
He did his internship as the Chief Medical Director of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital where was posted to the medical wards. He spends three months each in the major clinical specialities of internal medicine, surgery paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology. He helped in the urology unit of the department of surgery.
He met Odudu Barbara Essien who later became his wife during his spell at the anatomy laboratory at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
The couple married on May 15, 1982, and went on a honeymoon in Togo. Their only son Michael Augustus Achianja Magoha who is now a neurosurgeon was born on the 18th of March 1985 at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
After completing his internship in 1979, he applied for registration as a medical practitioner with the Nigeria Medical Council. Thereafter, he secured a recommendation for surgical training at the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.
He began preparing for the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) examinations after his internship. His first postgraduate training posting was to the Surgical Accident and Emergency Unit of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
In the beginning of 1980, the Lagos University Teaching Hospital allowed him to go on a study leave to prepare for the FRCS examinations at the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland in Dublin.
Later, he returned to Lagos for further training and was posted to the general surgery unit in the Nigeria Postgraduate Medical College within Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
Magoha also served in other surgical specialities like paediatrics, cardiothoracic, orthopaedics and plastic surgery before joining the University of Ibadan’s Medical School for another examination within the Nigeria National Postgraduate Medical College.
Following success in the examination, he became a senior resident in surgery and was posted to the urology unit at his request.
CS Magoha returned to his country of birth (Kenya) to teach at the University of Nairobi. He had published six papers in peer-reviewed journals on testicular torsion, breast cancer, cancer of the prostate, and Creative protein concentration after renal transplantation.
He began working in 1988 with his duties included teaching undergraduate medical students and postgraduate students pursuing general surgery and urology.
Magoha launched a part-time surgical and urological consultancy clinic at Hurlingham in Nairobi after he obtained a part-time private practice license from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board (KMPDB).
In 1996 Magha became an Associate Professor of Surgery after supervising Eight Master of Surgery students to completion he also published 23 peer-reviewed scholarly articles in both local and international journals. He was also involved in and presented papers at many local and international surgical and urological conferences.
In the year 2000, Magoha rose to the position of Dead, Faculty of Medicine without opposition where he was in charge of all academic programmes. He was part of the Dean’s Committee and sat in the university Senate.
A short while later he became a full professor after supervising the completion of more than 22 Master of Medicine Surgery theses, published 32 peer-reviewed publications in local and international scholarly journals and participated in several academic conferences.
In 2002, Magoha acted as the Principal of the School of Health Sciences and later became the Principal in the same faculty. During this time, he managed three faculties; of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry. He also joined the University Management Board (UMB) and began attending meetings of the University Council.
He became the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) of Administration and Finance in April 2002.
On the 5th of January 2005, he then became the sixth VC of UoN where he served for ten years. During his tenure, he focused on teamwork and a decentralized system of management.
The maiden Strategic Planning from the school of business and the School of Computing and Informatics was launched during his tenure in the 2005-2010 University of Nairobi Corporate Strategic Plan.
His administration nous included excellence of the university in teaching, research, scholarship, consultancy, community service, good governance and management. He also implemented Module II academic programmes that kept UoN on track.
The University of Nairobi Towers was built during his tenure. The project was the most ambitious and expensive since the inception of the institution in 1970 eventually costing Kes. 2.8 billion.
In 2006 Magoha joined an executive programme at Stanford University to learn new things and share experiences in corporate governance and best practices in management.
In 2016, the then Head of State President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Prof George Magoha as the Chairperson of the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC). He later became the Cabinet Secretary of Education before leaving office to be replaced by current education CS Ezekiel Magoha.