Former Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Albert Omore Magoha was known to many as a no-nonsense man as he is rarely pictured smiling.
Unknown to many, the CS had a softer side and that is his family. This is in line with the lives of many prominent government officials in Kenya who often opt to keep their family life private.
Consequently, not much is known of the late professor's wife as she managed to stay off the limelight for the longest time.
Former Education CS George Magoha addressing the congregation at the Chuka University graduation ceremony on Friday, October 14, 2022.
Barbara Odudu Essien Magoha, the wife to the late professor is of Nigerian descent and like other members of the Magoha family, is a medical practitioner.
According to a report by The Standard, they met at the University of Lagos, where both were students of medicine and got married in 1982.
She is also said to be the Honorary Consular of Mali in Kenya, and a lecturer at UoN.
Currently, she works as a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Kenyatta National Hospital while at the same time lecturing at the University of Nairobi.
Having acquired her degree at the University of Lagos, Barbara went on to study and graduate with a Masters of Medicine in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University of Nairobi.
Together with the late, they had one son, Michael Magoha, an alumnus of Strathmore and Brookhouse schools who unsurprisingly graduated from the University of Nairobi’s School of Medicine in 2009.
He also studied neurosurgery in 2011 and practises the same at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Professor George Magoha died of cardiac arrest on Tuesday, January 24, just days after securing a job at Maseno University.