DISGRUNTLED Safaricom Manager REVEAL deep details about CEO Bob Collymore- READ them HERE

Collymore corruption guilt driving him to turmoil

Because of the spectacular failures he has encountered on digital public relations recently, the celebrity Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore has resorted to hiring fifth-rated bloggers and tweeps to character assassinate and misrepresent the integrity of long established business persons.

By all accounts, Collymore remains the most overrated individual corporate head in Kenya today. The irony of it all is 58 year old Collymore is launching personal attacks on successful, self-employed businessmen, while he has been on paid employment all his working life.

Collymore inherited a hugely successful company, one that enjoys near monopoly, from Michael Joseph. Anyone to claim Collymore is the most successful CEO in Kenya is leaving in dreamland because any bonoko could have done what Collymore has done with the foundation left behind by Joseph. Collymore is therefore not primarily responsible for Safaricom’s corporate success.

Conveniently forgotten are the Kenyan Safaricom employees, dealers and agents countrywide, the real unsung heros and heroines, the faceless, anonymous, hardworking and dedicated workers who spend hours to keep the GSM operator staggering revenues flowing in. These are the people who innovate products and promotions that generate the Sh163.4 billion revenues. Without them, there would be no Ksh31.9bn profit profits, no Ksh25.64 billion dividends to pay, no Ksh.31billion taxes to remit to the exchequer, no bursaries and sponsorship from the Safaricom Foundation.

Instead of attributing these to the thieving Guyanese CEO, Kenyans had better thank their own patriotic Kenyan citizens for the success of Safaricom. Collymore’s most notable accomplishment is limited to marrying a Kenyan wife and to reading the CEO’s report at Safaricom annual general meetings; after approving irregular procurement deals and payments to a cartel he has formed to monopolize Safaricom business.

But whatever propaganda Collymore manufacturers and spreads in the digital world to insulate himself against graft allegations, the recent leaked KPMG forensic report, which points to a staggering Ksh300 billion procurement scandal, has finally lifted the cover on the real Bob Collymore.

Collymore’s hollow threat of inviting the CID to investigate the leaked KPMG report is hypocritical as he continues to implement the report in bits and pieces. His paid statement of defence is shallow and full of linguistic and logical incoherence. It does not prove Safaricom did not lose money to unscrupulous business cartels that he favours.

This is to be expected from an incompetent man with a lightweight CV such as Bob Collymore who owes his position to patronage and the fact he was of black race and therefore suitable for nomination by Vodafone to head Safaricom. Collymore does not have any undergraduate qualification and was merely fished from obscurity within Vodafone to fill a vacuum of heading a firm with a market capitalisation north of Sh700 billion in Africa.

More fundamentally, what is Bob Collymore’s background? Does Collymore have what it takes to bring about sustainable growth in Safaricom?

Before he came to Kenya to enjoy a pampered expatriate life paid for by Safaricom; he was among the hundreds of Vodafone day workers. A quick review of Collymore CV reveals he has no record of success anywhere having only held a number of marketing, purchasing and commercial roles in Vodafone over a 15-year period.

The problem appears to stem from the fact that majority of employees at Safaricom are more educated and more technical sound than Collymore is. In other words, Collymore could be in the same paygrade as his tea girl.

For this reason, Collymore is often mired in fear of the unknown, viewing all his managers and their ideas with suspicion. This has inevitably lead to a situation where the CEO wants to micromanage all processes which is proven by the fact he is both the CEO and the Chairman of Safaricom’s tender committee. He is also the sole and final authority on Safaricom Oracle payment system. He does not even trust internal audit systems.

Sources within Safaricom describe Collymore as an ineffectual CEO without a vision and one who only enjoys wielding control over his managers instead of showing them leadership. Due to his lack of vision, Safaricom have failed to launch a substantive project in his five year tenure and those he attempted to launch failed leaving Safaricom with expensive and obsolete inventory of equipment worth more than Ksh500 million.

Collymore has been branded as a waste of space and salary only good at attending business social events paid for by the company. Collymore is also accused by senior employees who prefer to remain anonymous of being indecisive as he changes his mind every five seconds and is often distracted by stupid and petty things. This has made his ability to manage crisis almost comical.