Nairobi News

Citizen TV news anchor Jeff Koinange has recounted a surreal conversation he had with deceased Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore, less than 48 hours before the latter’s death on Monday morning.

Speaking to Citizen TV, moments after Collymore’s death was announced, Jeff narrated how he briefly interrupted a lunch date with his mother and sister on Saturday afternoon to go and check on Collymore.

That encounter would turn out to be Collymore’s farewell moment with small clique of close friends, who were aware that he was living out his final moments.

“On Saturday I was having lunch with my mother and my sister and I told them, ‘listen, given me an hour, I have to go see Bob.’ A group of us, about five of us, we had known this was coming. Bob had informed us. So we knew that he wasn’t gonna last very long,” Jeff said.

LITTLE TIME TO LIVE

According Jeff, Collymore had been told by his doctors that he would not make it past the month of July.

Jeff also revealed that knowing that he had very little time to live, Collymore was had been preparing for his demise.

“I have never seen anyone more prepared for death, like I did this man. We went (to see Collymore) on Saturday afternoon around three O’clock and we hang out with him. He was in a bit of pain, his spine was giving him some problem, so he kept getting up and stretching his spine and sitting back down,” Jeff recounted.

In Jeff’s account, Collymore appeared to know that his was living out his final moments.

GOOD LIFE

“He kept saying ‘I’ve lived a good life… I have some regrets… it’s not a perfect life, nobody is perfect, but I’m ready now,'” the TV presenter narrated.

The Guyanese-born British citizen died early on Monday morning at his home in Nairobi at the age of 61.

Collymore has been battling cancer for the last two years and took a medical leave in October 2017 to seek treatment in the UK.

In May this year, Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki appointed Collymore to the National Cancer Institute board.