Safaricom shops closed for four hours to mourn the late Bob Collymore
The late Bob Collymore passed away on July 1 2019 following a long battle with cancer at his home in Kitisuru. In 2017 Bob was diagnosed with blood cancer referred as Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Since then Bob had been under treatment in various hospitals in and out of the country. He received treatment in the UK for ten months, after which he declined to renew his contract that was to expire in August 2019 so as to take care of his health. However Safaricom board had to extend Bob’s contract until 2020 as they couldn’t get a suitable candidate agreeable to all stakeholders that would replace him as Safaricom CEO, but the extension didn’t see light of the day as Bob would die on Monday, July 1st, 2019.
Bob had been at the helm of Safaricom for the past nine years after taking over from Michael Joseph who stepped down for him in 2010. Bob Collymore achievements at the time of his demise were unmatchable. Safaricom made a net profit of 63.4 billion shillings in the 2019 fiscal year an increase of 14.7% from last year’s 45.1 billion shillings.
After his death, many I included thought that the country would be given time to mourn and remember him as is the case when prolific leaders pass away, but this wasn’t to be the case. Just a day after he passed on, on July 2, 2019, Bob was cremated at Kariokor in Nairobi where family and close friends were the only attendees. His memorial service would take place two days later on July 4, 2019 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Nairobi.
To join Kenyans in eulogising Bob, Safaricom closed all Safaricom shops across the country for four hours as the memorial service went on. The shops are scheduled for reopening at 2:30 PM. The wife, Wambui Kamiru said that she was overwhelmed by the good messages of condolences that she was getting about his late husband. Michael Joseph who was the former CEO has made a comeback to Safaricom as an interim CEO replacing the late Bob Collymore.
Also check: EULOGIZING ROBERT COLLYMORE
