Former Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph personally pushed and campaigned for the late Bob Collymore to replace him at Safaricom.
Speaking in 2018 when Safaricom was celebrating 18 years of operation, Joseph noted that Collymore was not a front runner, but he vouched for him to be appointed as his replacement.
According to Joseph, he campaigned for Collymore because he believed the latter was the best candidate to take Safaricom to the next level.
"We had gone on a worldwide search for a replacement for me. Actually, the search had started two years beforehand and we’d gone round and we’d done a shortlist.
"I pushed for Bob to be on that shortlist. He wasn’t the favourite candidate at the time, but I pushed for Bob because he understood the DNA of Safaricom. He understood what we were all about: we were not just a mobile phone company, we were much bigger than that.
"This country believed in Safaricom; we were part of everybody’s life. Bob understood that and I knew that Bob would continue with the legacy of Safaricom, not just my legacy. It was my legacy, but the company’s legacy that he would continue. That’s why I chose Bob," he said as quoted by Nation.
Collymore died at his Nairobi Home on Monday, July 1 after a long battle with cancer.
He will is set to be cremated today at a private ceremony.
Safaricom has since appointed Michael Joseph as the acting Chief Executive Officer.