This archive report was first published on 5 July 2019.
On July 5, 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta attended a memorial service at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi, where he paid tribute to former Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.
During the service, the president revealed the emotional details of their final meeting, which took place just a week before Collymore's death.
According to President Kenyatta, Collymore had called him at 2am from Canada, informing him that he would not be able to keep his promise of staying with the company for another year.
Despite knowing he had only a few days left, Collymore spent four hours discussing his vision for Safaricom with the president, showing more concern for the company's future than his own health.
"He told me that he did not have more than a few weeks to go. So we spent a whole afternoon and I wondered why he was talking to me about Safaricom and not about himself," President Kenyatta said.
Collymore's focus on the company's future was evident in his conversation with the president, who revealed that he had accepted his own mortality and was more concerned with the legacy he would leave behind.
