About Me

Karani Magutah is a senior lecturer in Medical Physiology in the School of Medicine at Moi University. He is both a Medical Physiologist and a public health specialist (Epidemiology and Disease control). He holds a PhD and also an MSc in Medical Physiology both from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. He also holds an MPH and also a BSN both from Moi University, Kenya. He is a CARTA (Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa) scholar, a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (English: German Academic Exchange Service)) alumni and also an alumni of the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) Policy Advocacy and Communication Enhancement (PACE), (PRB's PACE). He completed his post-doctorate fellowship at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Before joining the Medical School of Moi University, he worked at the Reproductive Health Department of the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.

Karani has particular interest in experimental research relating effects of different exercise (and physical activity) regimes, intensities and bouts to the modulation of cardio-respiratory fitness markers associated with lifestyle diseases. His main focus has been the metabolic syndrome areas of prehypertension, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and elevated blood glucose, and how development of more appealing approaches to exercise and physical activity participation can help today’s populace overcome the recently observed increasing burden of lifestyle-related, non-communicable diseases.

Karani sits for the MU/MTRH research ethics committee and has reviewed hundreds of research proposals and articles over the years. He additionally sits for the monitoring and Evaluation sub-committee of that local IRB. He is also a trainer on responsible conduct of research and consults on health research methods. He is a member of the Bioethics Society of Kenya. Outside teaching and research, he has often consulted in various curricula development such as in policy communication, responsible conduct of research and CARTA curricula to name a few. He is also an independent public health consultant who has done evaluation consultancies for, among others, the WHO. He reviews journal articles for multiple journals and publishers, and, is also an editorial board member for the BMC Journal series.

He is a holder of a quite few research and academic awards (see CV).

Having achieved his highest level of training at a moderately young age for individuals who school in the notoriously "slow" Kenyan system to completion, he is passionate about mentoring young scholars who dare to be bold and open enough to allow an invasion for a composition where science interacts with the soul. He is a believer that education is useless unless its application allows a realization and clear understanding that helps one to be competitively street-smart in a world that no longer respects grades.

Other than involvement in academic works, Karani is a staunch sports enthusiast and a non-professional runner who consistently does 150-200 kms of running monthly (≥10 to 24 kms per run), at speeds averaging up to 13km/hr. He spends significant amount of his free time playing board and table games, and loves training children and adolescents how to play chess, scrabble and table tennis. He has massive interest in farming and landscaping and has personally planted over 10,000 trees in his life. 

He struggles in some fine skills like how to tie a tie and just won't master the art even after endless trainings and practice on the same since his primary school days -  his head just cant grasp that, just as it also can't the aerobic dance steps.

Karani is married to one wife and has a daughter and a son.