When Prof. George Magoha's VW Beetle was stolen in Nigeria: "It was a very difficult period"

Departed former Education CS Prof. George Magoha had earlier shared a hilarious story of how a VolksWagen Beetle he owned was stolen in Nigeria.

Prof. Magoha was a student at University of Ibadan Medical School, where he had joined in 1973. He lived in a hostel at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, which was “very hot and humid so we contributed money to purchase an electric fan to keep our room cool.”

In his autobiography Tower of Transformational Leadership, which was published in 2017, Prof. Magoha says he learnt life-long lessons from his Vice Chancellor Prof. Ade-Ajayi.

While he was a fresher, Prof. Ajayi took Magoha to his house for lunch. “I was completely dumbfounded by his humility and simplicity, because despite his very high position, he had taken the time to receive me. All my life therefore, I have tried to emulate this.”

Magoha wrote his final university exams in 1978 and qualified to become a medical doctor. He passed all his exams in Medical School without repeating a single paper.

 “This could only happen through the grace of God and I was most grateful to Him,” wrote the departed Professor. “To celebrate my graduation and becoming a medical doctor, I bought my first car, a VolksWagen Beetle. The car came in handy especially during emergency calls at night, on my internship. However, one night as I was serving my paediatrics posting, the car was stolen, right outside the paediatric casualty….It was a very difficult period as it took me another six months to purchase another car.”

Prof. Magoha then went on to pursue postgraduate training in Nigeria and later, in Dublin, Ireland. He returned to Kenya in 1987 after being appointed “without an interview” as a lecturer at the University of Nairobi Faculty of Medicine.

The vacancy had arisen following the death of Prof. Nelson Awori in a road accident.

Prof. Magoha died on Tuesday evening at the Nairobi Hospital after a heart attack. He was 71.