Bob who flies choppers, collects arts, loves books, blows his saxophone, wears his happy socks, fears cats and steers, as captain, Safaricom, the most profitable company that announced a staggering Sh 55.2 billion net profit is reportedly so sick that he was unable to continue managing the company.
Share holders were given this information that had Alai questioning whether Kenya doesn’t have other qualified men able to lead safaricom.
Safaricom shareholders have been told that Bob Collymore is so sick now that he is not able to continue managing the company? We don’t have qualified Kenyans able to lead Safaricom?
— Robert ALAI, HSC (@RobertAlai) October 26, 2018
Back in 2017 Dr. Silverstein revealed to Bob that there could be problem with this blood and since he is not an expert on such issues, he referred him to a specialist in the U.K but with the Kenyan election coming up and his company’s end-year events, he told the doctor that he would oblige after he discharged his duties.
The doctor insisted and so he left for London and it is there that a hematologist diagnosed him with Acute Myeloid Leukemia: a type of cancer that starts in the blood-forming cells of the bone marrow.
Before the unfortunate discovery Bob had been diagonalized with with Vitamin D deficiency in .Collymore said he was not satisfied with the diagnosis and decided to seek a second opinion from Dr. David Silverstein at the Nairobi Hospital.
The symptoms appeared during his visit to Morocco where Collymore said he started experiencing flu-like symptoms, his body would start shaking and had severe pain in the shin; the bones at the front of the leg below the knee.
However, when he returned to Nairobi and went to get checked, he was told he had Vitamin D deficiency and was given supplements.
He did 30 different blood tests that cost him $1,000 (Ksh.100,000) but said he could not get what the problem was. He needed to do more tests which meant he had to be admitted.This was the first time that Collymore said he had ever been admitted to hospital and the first test they did involved removing bone marrow from his body and testing it.
In an interview later after diagnosis,treatment and recovery he was asked if the illness changed how he does business and he revealed that to some extent it has. It allowed him to let more people manage him. “It’s made us focus on the things that are important because not everything is important, not all arguments are important.” he said.
“You do not always have the last word on something and you do not always have to be the first person to say something. Just shut up and listen and do not have to always say anything. When you spend a lot of time on your own, you realise that silence actually is a pretty good thing,” he went on.
”I know purpose is to help as many people as I can to do the right thing. I have talked about cancer children at KNH on palliative care, children who know they will die and not dying in the best circumstances.
My question is; can I sway people or the government to do the right thing for them? Can I make business deals that will look at the climate change or impact it in a good way? Can I do more to encourage great transparency, reduce fraud and corruption?”.
While undergoing chemotherapy Bob revealed, he fights for Wambui and for his children and for the legion of Kenyans who have been praying for his recovery. To mean now he just has to be Bob.
Do you think Bob should go on managing Safaricom even with his illness taking a toll on him?