Kenya National Examinations Council Chairman Prof Geroge Magoha has made a surprise statement after alluding that Kenyan MPs are idiots.
Magoha, who gained public admiration for spearheading the clean-up in national exams with Education CS Fred Matiang’i, was responded to residents in his home constituency of Gem who had proposed that he joins politics as their MP.
The accomplished professor of medicine responded by stating that he would not be interested in contesting the seat because his level-mind would not accommodate the murky nature of Kenyan politics.
He further claimed that only a mad professor would thrive in Kenyan politics.
“The things some of these professors do is an insult to academic excellence. I would never go into politics, because it would mean sitting with idiots,” Magoha stated.
He added that the rigorous process of educating one to the level of a professor is no mean achievement, and as such, highly-educated members of society should stick to research and publishing instead of politics.
The former UoN Vice Chancellor spoke when he witnessed a ceremony where the University Council of Maasai Mara University travelled to the rural home of renowned historian Prof Bethwell Allan Ogot, to award him with an honorary degree.
Interestingly, both Ogot and Magoha come from Yala which is believed to be the village with the highest number of professors in Kenya.
Other prominent scholars from the area include the late professors Grace Ogot and David Peter Wasawo.
Kenya’s first African Lawyer Arwings Kodhek also hailed from the village whose legacy comes from Chief Odera Akang’o, a no-nonsense administrator who wanted his subjects to embrace formal education in the early 1900s.
