Safaricom’s Bob Collymore succumbs to cancer at age 61

By Steve Umidha

The long-serving Safaricom Chief executive Officer Bob Collymore is dead. In a statement from the company, the mobile operator’s boss died on Monday morning (2:30am) at his Nairobi home.

He succumbed to a type of cancer known as Myeloid Leukemia (AML) at the age of 61, leaving behind his Kenyan wife and four children. He had taken a nine-month medical leave in late 2017 to undergo cancer treatment in England and returned to Kenya in July last year. His death coming exactly one year following his return from the byzantine surgery.

In May this year, Safaricom Board granted him a 1-year extension in office and he said he would spend the time helping the company diversify revenue streams from e commerce and digifarm.

Bob as he’s fondly called left office in October 2017 to seek undisclosed medical attention. In March this year, he addressed Safaricom investors through a video call and promised them that he’d be back as he was in his last treatment phase.

“I have just entered the final phase of treatment and expect to be back in Nairobi as soon as doctors feel that my immune system is sufficiently robust to withstand the infection risks that are usually associated with airline travel,”

In his comeback tweet, Safaricom’s boss thanked all those who stood by him, including his wife, Wambui Kamiru.

“I’m back. Thanks to everyone who supported me over the past 9 months especially the clinical team at @uclh, my superb @SafaricomPLC team and of course my wife @WambuiKamiru,” read his tweet on 6th August.

Bob had been expected to exit the Kenya’s biggest telecoms firm in August this year for health reasons, with the government’s insistence he should be succeeded by a Kenyan has delayed announcing a replacement. However, Collymore said in May this year that he will be at the helm of the telecommunications firm till 2020 – extending his stay for a further 12 months, and marking the second extension of Mr Collymore’s term at the helm of Safaricom.

Mr Collymore said the telco had extended his term for a year to allow him to compensate for his earlier absence out of medical leave.

“I will be at the company till 2020,”said Mr Collymore in a briefing with reporters on the sidelines of The Africa Shared Value Summit held in Nairobi.

Under his stewardship, Safaricom’s mobile money transfer service, MPESA has soared to Sh5.2trillion as of March 2016 – the highest deal value since March 2007 when it handled Sh10.3million.

As of the end of December 2016, M-PESA served close to 29.5 million active customers through a network of more than 287,400 agents in the ten countries where Mpesa is used, and 6 billion transactions were processed in 2016 alone, peaking in December 2016 at 529 transactions every second.

The ten year study of M-PESA’s impact finds that the Social Value generated by M-PESA grew from Sh83 million in 2007 to Sh184 billion by the end of March 2016, with M-PESA customers regarded the biggest beneficiary of this social value, receiving a return in value of Sh160 billion as a stakeholder group in the financial year ending 2016.

During his tenure, Safaricom’s share price has increased by more than 400 percent to 28.00 shillings ($0.28). He has also led the charge against regulatory efforts to clip the company’s wings due to its dominant size.

Safaricom, which is 35 percent owned by South Africa’s Vodacom, controls about 62 percent of Kenya’s mobile market, with 30 million subscribers. Britain’s Vodafone has a 5 percent stake and the Kenyan government 35 percent.

Private investors also own shares via the Nairobi bourse.