Replacing Ideot and Lunch with Safaricom CEO

If you are not aware… I lost my phone in a traffic-snatching #Nairoberry incident. Thanks for all the sympathy that came my way, as you can see I had integrated Ideot into my everyday life. It was a part of almost everything I did.

I saw a comment from Bob Collymore, the Safaricom CEO, on Sunday that made my day:

Touching tribute to the humble Ideos indeed. I doubt that Huawei themselves could have envisaged such a eulogy. Swing by our offices this week, ask for me and we’ll have a bright new shiny one waiting for you. HOWEVER, don’t y’all be thinking I’m gonna replace all your stolen phones…..learn from her and stop tweeting in traffic!!

So today I swung by their offices. I asked the watchman at the gate where the CEO’s office was (there are two adjacent buildings at the Safaricom center) and he almost directed me to MJ’s office! Apparently, he comes in once in a while, I guess he still maintains some space there.

After leaving my ID at the reception, getting directions and a visitors card, I made my way to the lifts. I noticed I was the only one headed to the top-most floor (executive suite, sweet!). Alone in the lift, I stared at my reflection in the mirror and decided I was presentable enough. I didn’t wait for long once at the top, I was warmly welcomed by Wangari, the marketing manager who ushered me into Bob’s office.

Hmm.. should I describe the office? No, that will rob you of your imagination!

So he got up from his seat and extended a hand, and welcomed me to take a seat. Playing cool is hard unless you’re already cool, like me 🙂

We went to the cafe(s) at the ground floor for lunch. We discussed X and Y stuff, general stuff, etc. I talked so much I hardly touched my food…

As we left the office to go for lunch, he showed me two boxes containing Ideots and asked me which colour I wanted. My Ideot was blue but there was only pink and black. I chose black.

In the lift going down, at every stop along the way, the doors would open, and you would find someone hesitating and putting on their poker face on seeing BC! He then ushered them into the lift. He’s a really cool and friendly guy, in my opinion. All I had asked for was 5 minutes of his time, and I got a whole lunch hour instead! He reminds me of Paul Kagame, whom I met while I was in Rwanda.

It was definitely an awesome moment for me. Since it was not an interview, I had not prepared any questions to ask him…. but I found myself being the one answering questions!

So I know some of you might not believe me when I say I had lunch with the Safaricom CEO and head of marketing. I’m putting up an image of our lunch date below:

Wangari, Bob and I having lunch.

A toast, to the new Ideos. Life goes on.