NAIROBI Kenya, Jan 27 – Francis Atwoli, the secretary general of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU), described former Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha as an honest, upright and sincere person who uphold discipline, particularly in the educational field.
Speaking at the late Magoha’s home in Nairobi, Atwoli praised the late CS as a man who was firm in his decisions and not even his friends would convince him otherwise once he made up his mind.
He remembered the day his son was dismissed from the University of Nairobi (UON) when Magoha was then serving as the Vice Chancellor and he totally refused to readmit him.
“He was a serious man and indeed very serious because he called me one day and told me he did not want my son in his university anymore, there are very few people who can do that,’ Atwoli recalled.
“I hold my influence I know and the tactics I was told on negotiations, but he said no Francis, I have said my no is no. Take your son in another university you can, and that was it.”
Atwoli added that the Former Education CS was never corrupt, he would not take anything as bribe, he was upright and it never determined whether one was a close friend to him.
He said that Magoha would even be buried without anyone’s shilling stolen and no one will come claiming that he had bribed him. He was an upright person in his actions.
“And here he is going down to the grave without somebody’s even one shilling, and we, in the world of work know who is corrupt and who is not because we are represented everywhere,” he said.
“Nobody will come here and say I bribed him,I gave him money to do for me this and that, this is an upright person, honest, sincere and specific on issues and Kenyans will never have such a person.”
Magoha passed away at the Nairobi Hospital on Tuesday afternoon where he was rushed to after suffering a cardiac arrest at home.
His death came at a time when 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.
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