Before he married Wambui Kamiru in April 2016, former Safaricom Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bob Collymore had been in two other marriages.
Without giving much details about his first wife or marriage life, Collymore, who died on Monday, said his first marriage broke down since it was a ‘mistake’.
“The first marriage was a mistake for sure. I was too young — in my 20s,” the former corporate guru said in an interview with Steve Biko of Daily Nation in August 2018.
Collymore spoke to the local daily a week after he was discharged from the University College London Hospitals (UCHL) in London, United Kingdom (UK), where he underwent treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia for nine months.
After his first marriage fell apart, Collymore accepted and moved on. Within a couple of years, he found another lover, who he identified as Clare, and he took her in as a wife.
The couple was blessed with two kids but as fate would have it, the marriage did not work. Collymore and Claire had to divorce.
“The second one was not a mistake, what was a mistake was how we conducted it,” he said of the marriage which was officially dissolved by a UK court in 2012.
However, even after their divorce, Collymore and Clare, a cancer survivor, remained as friends and when he was in the London hospital, she could visit and help him in overcoming effects of chemotherapy.
Clare also developed a close relationship with Collymore’s third wife, Wambui Kamiru, and she could invite her (Wambui) to her house when she was taking care of Collymore in the London hospital.
“Now we’re actually very good friends with Clare because we have children in common and she has been very very supportive because she’s gone through cancer herself in the UK and she kind of gives me tips on how to deal with some of the challenges that I face with the chemicals they’re about to pump into me. She frequently reached out to Wambui and say why don’t you come down for the weekend?” recounted the former Safaricom boss.
Collymore disclosed Clare had found a fiancee and they were supposed to get married in 2019.
“They’re getting married again next year. He’s a good man. He would go to such extent just to make sure that I can see my daughter. When I was sick he would drive her and then leave her for the Saturday,” he recalled.
The Guyanese-born British citizen, who was cremated on Tuesday at Kariokor Hindu Crematorium in Nairobi, was survived by his wife, Wambui, and four children.
