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Collymore: Dedicated family man who shared very little about his private life


Despite occupying a high perch as the CEO of Kenya’s most profitable company, Safaricom, for more than a decade, Bob Collymore, who died on Monday, somehow managed to keep his private life away from prying eyes of the public.

At the age of 16, Collymore, a Guyanese-born Briton, who was raised by his grandmother, moved to United Kingdom where his mother lived.

In the UK, he attended Selhurst High School. He later married and divorced twice before meeting his third wife Wambui Kamiru many years later in Kenya.

There are however no details about Collymore’s first wife although he once revealed during an interview with Sunday Nation that his first marriage was a mistake.

FIRST MARRIAGE 

“The first marriage was a mistake for sure. I was too young — in my 20s. The second one was not a mistake, what was a mistake was how we conducted it,” he said at the time.

He is reported to have divorced his second wife sometime in 2012 in a drawn-out case in the UK after irreconcilable differences.

Although Collymore shared very little information about his family, the little that he did painted a picture of a proud and dedicated family man.

For instance, on March 23, 2018 Collymore shared a picture on Twitter of his son on his graduation day.

“Guess whose son just received his 1st Class Honours degree in Music from Martha Lane-Fox at a graduation ceremony at London’s Barbican,” Collymore captioned the photo.

THIRD MARRIAGE

He also spoke very fondly and affectionately about his adopted 11-year-old daughter, who he dotingly referred to as his his pumpkin.

“The other significant thing that happened in my 50s is that I adopted my daughter — we have a 50-year difference between us. That was a great thing,” he said during an interview with the Sunday Nation.

Collymore also found love in Kenya and in April 2016 he tied the knot with Wambui at an invite-only event in the leafy suburb of Kitisuru in Nairobi.

The two met 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 while Collymore was there representing Safaricom Foundation.

Before her divorce from her previous marriage Wambui had twins.