As the country struggles to get into terms with Bob Collymore’s death, Little is known about his highly private life.
Collymore was born in Guyana and raised by his grandparents there. At the age of 16, he moved to join his mother in the United Kingdom, attending Selhurst High School.
Upon leaving school, he was offered a place at Warwick University, but had to turn this down as he was ineligible for funding.
From 1993, Collymore worked in various positions in the telecommunications industry in the UK, including work for Cellnet, Dixons Retail and Vodafone UK.
In 2003 he moved to Japan to manage the integration of J-Phone into the Vodafone Group.
In 2006 he became the governance director for Africa at Vodafone and subsidiary Safaricom. In 2010 he was appointed chief executive officer of Safaricom.
Collymore married his second wife, Wambui Kamiru, on 2 April 2016 in an invitation-only wedding at an upmarket residence in Kitisuru, Nairobi.
Collymore met Kamiru in Nairobi during a fundraiser for survivors of the Loreto Convent Msongari school bus crash that occurred in July 2011.
Wambui was part of the event in her capacity as an alumnus and Collymore was there representing Safaricom Foundation with fundraising.
Collymore has two stepdaughters from his wife’s first marriage to Joseph Kinyua
