Barbra Magoha Odudu, the widow of former Cabinet Secretary George Magoha eulogized her late husband as a loving and caring husband demystifying how Kenyans viewed the late professor as a serious and no nonsense professional.
Speaking on Tuesday, January 31 at her home in Lavington Estate, Nairobi, Dr Barbra told mourners how she met and fell in love with the late academician and surgeon.
“I want to remove that serious face of Magoha so that you know the other side of Magoha,” Dr Barbara said amid smiles and laughter. “Exactly one month after we met, he started telling people that we are going to get married. And that is the first time we had a quarell. I said, how can you do that and he (Magoha) replied, I know you can not accept because I am not a Nigerian,” Magoha’s widow said.
Also Read: George Magoha: A Look into the Life of a Notable Figure
Dr Barbara further remembered how Magoha took good care of her when she delivered their only child Dr Steve Magoha who is a surgeon at Nairobi Hospital.
“When I was pregnant with my son, I was in between life and death with my blood pressure. He told me if this is what pregnancy is all about this case (having children) is closed. And when I gave birth to my son because of the blood pressure, I could not breast feed him because I had no milk. You can’t imagine that the next day by 6:30 in the morning I had two litres of fruit juice squuezed by him (Magoha). And he did that every morning before he went to work. And other’s used to ask what kind of a man is this?” Dr Magoha said.
Magoha’s widow further described her late husband as a forgiving man who was kind hearted.
“There was so much argument but when he knew the other person is down, he will give up just for them. He was so forgiving, people never knew that. If you say you have a headache (in midst of an argument), he would ask if you got your medicines and the case would be closed,” Dr Barbara said.
Prof George Magoha died on Tuesday last week following a cardiac arrest at the Nairobi Hospital and is set to be laid to rest at his home in Gem Sub-county in Siaya on Saturday 11 February 2023.