On Monday, Safaricom Plc shares opened 2.7% lower at Sh27.35 after the telecoms company announced the death of Chief Executive Robert William Collymore.
According to a statement from the company, the long-serving CEO died on Monday morning at his home in Nairobi after a nearly two-year battle with cancer.
In 2018, the 61-year-old clean-shaven CEO took a nine-month medical leave to seek treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) at a London hospital.
In May, Collymore, who had been due to step down in August after nine years at the helm of Safaricom announced he would stay in his position for an extra year, an announcement that saw Safaricom’s share price rise by more than 400 per cent.
In 2017 shareholders voted to extend Mr. Collymore’s contract by an additional two years after his tenure expired.
Collymore took over the helm of Safaricom in 2010 from Michael Joseph who currently sits in the company’s board as a non-executive director as well as the board chairman for Kenya Airways.
His term was set to expire in August 2020 and makes him the longest serving CEO in the telco’s brief history.
