Joseph Maina Mungai (born in Kenya, 4 April 1932; died 13 August 2003) was the first African to become Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Nairobi.
[1] Besides a medical journal editor position,[2] and a long-term stint as a newspaper correspondent, he was also Head and faculty member of the Department of Anatomy, .
In 1970, President Jomo Kenyatta appointed Josephat Karanja, a former ambassador to Britain, as the University of Nairobi's first Vice-Chancellor.
[9][10] During the mid- to late 1970s, he was assigned a trusteeship on the Kenya Hospital Authority Trust Fund; and in 1977 appointed as the first Chairman of the National Council for Science & Technology.
[12] Previously, while still in his early twenties, Mungai had joined with Joel Ojai and Thomas Odhiambo – who in later years was an entomologist and environmental scientist – in helping Louis Leakey,[13][14] prominent archaeologist and pioneer in East African anthropology and palaeontology, found the Kenya Museum Associates.
The MGH designation is higher than one he had received in 1995 for his role while university don --- that of ranking as an Elder of the Burning Spear (EBS).
Moi had paid tribute to Mungai for his 40-year teaching career and noted that the retired academician's life had been dedicated more "to education rather than the pursuit of wealth".