Safaricom chief executive officer Bob Collymore died the early morning of 1st June 2019 in Nairobi city
In October 2017, he took a long medical leave to fight cancer.
“He has been undergoing treatment for his condition since then in different hospitals and most recently at Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. In recent weeks, his condition worsened and the succumbed to the cancer at his home in the early hours of Monday,” Safaricom chairman Nicholas Ng’ang’a said in a statement.
Collymore took over Safricom from Michael Joseph in November 2010.
Mr Collymore leaves behind a wife and four children.
RIP.
10 Interesting Facts About Fallen Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore
- Bob Collymore was born 61 years ago in 1958, Guyana where he was raised by only his grandparents. In 1974, when he was 16 years, he moved to UK to live with his mother, joining Selhurst High School
- He received a call up at Warwick University when he finished high school, but he could not attend due to lack of school fees
- At the age of 35 in 1993, Bob Colluymore started gaining his knowledge in telecommunication industries while in UK. He worked with top UK firms such as for Cellnet, Dixons Retail and Vodafone UK
- At the onset of 2003, he moved to Japan to help and manage the integration of J-Phone into the Vodafone Group
- Barely at the age of 48 years old, in 2006 he was appointed as the governance director for Africa at Vodafone and subsidiary Safaricom
- Then in 2010, he took over Safaricom at the age of 52 until his demise in 2019 aged 61 years old. Bob Collymore served at Safaricom as a CEO for a total of nine years
- He married the love of his life Wambui Kamiru, on 2 April 2016 in Kitusuru, Nairobi. The event was all white attended by invites only.
- They first met in Nairobi during a fund drive campaign where Bob was representing Safaricom Foundation while Wambui was part of the organizers for the survivors of the Loreto Convent Msongari school bus crash that occurred in July 2011 . Kamiru was his second wife.
- In October 2017, he went to UK for advanced treatment for acute myeloid leukemia and returned in 2018 July when he felt better but was put under medication in several hospitals
- His condition worsened in June 2019 before taking his last breath on 1st of July 2019.
- In 2012, he was awarded with Moran of the Burning Spear by the then former President Mwai Kibaki
- He was one of the top paid CEOs in Kenya with a monthly salary of Ksh.10 million
