01 July 2019

Collymore was 61

 

The chief executive officer (CEO) of Kenyan telecom company Safaricom, Bob Collymore, has died at the age of 61.

A British businessman born in Guyana, Collymore had been suffering from an acute form of leukemia and passed away while at home on the morning of July 1st. 

He was well known in Kenya and east Africa for championing M-Pesa to Kenyans, the mobile money transfer platform that began as texting money between users, but has now evolved to cover billions of financial transactions in the country.

14 June 2019

Liquid Telecom Kenya has used its high-speed fibre network to connect the main hospital in Mombasa to seven of its outreach centres in the coastal region, bringing healthcare closer to the community.

The roll-out of services started in August 2018 in a bid to improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in some of the more rural communities.

This includes online consultations and diagnostic services.

“Travel costs were often prohibitive for patients,” said Hemed Twahir, medical director at Aga Khan Hospital, Mombasa. “For example, patients coming from Voi to Mombasa spend around KSh700 on bus fares, which is a major cost at a time when most of the population struggle to buy even basic medication, and often cannot afford to visit the hospital for follow up appointments.”