Industry, Cellulant mourns loss of six IT professionals killed by terrorists in Nairobi

The Kenyan IT industry and Cellulant are mourning the death of six of Cellulant’s prolific staff killed on Tuesday as they put their lives on the line to save colleagues engulfed in the recent Riverside terrorist attack in Nairobi, Kenya.

In a Cellulant memorial service poster, the company celebrated the geeks; Ashford Kuria – Head of Product Development, Dennis Mwaniki, Head of Information Security, Jeremiah Mbaria Head of Hub, John Nderitu – Quality assurance Tester and Wilfred Karethi – Implementation Engineer, Global Delivery Team, Kelvin Gitonga Hub Engineer describing them as Six Brave Men.

The memorial service of the departed six Cellulant employees is slated on Tuesday, 22nd January at Citam Valley Road, Nairobi at 10.30 am.

“They put their lives on the line in true acts of bravery, leadership and selflessness to save the lives of colleagues in the Riverside terrorist attack,” averred part of a statement circulated on the memorial service poster capturing the photos of the Cellulant’s brave-six.

In a brief tributes, Celluant eulogized Ashford as the ultimate geek. His knowledge of everything about everything was hilarious because he spent much of his time quietly working on his projects.

“In the coming days and weeks, we shall continue the never-ending work of strengthening our systems. From the means available Judicial arms, we will continue taking every step to make our nation inhospitable to terrorist groups and their networks,”

Kenya’s President H.E. Uhuru Kenyatta.

Dennis reckoned as a very humble and intelligent was eulogized as quick thinker and the man behind Cellulant’s ISO27001 information security certification.

Jeremiah, nicknamed Jere was to Cellulant not just a leader, but a brother and a mentor. He guided his team with humility and corrected them with humour. He loved God and everyone he came across and challenged his team to work on bettering themselves.

Known for his humour, Cellulant eulogized John as the man behind the brains of the Ecobank and bulk short message service (SMS). He was passionate about service improvement and worked on all the projects.

Being a man who was so passionate about his job Kelvin, according to Cellulant’s leadership will fondly be remembered as an intelligent and competent engineer who worked in the Hub Implementation Department as Hub Developer. He was very passionate about his job and everything Java Script.

Wilfred was always jovial and emerged as an energetic individual who never shied away from any difficulties stated Cellulant’s leadership adding that he epitomized the company’s motto: Make Possible!

In an earlier statement to the nation, Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta declared that the country would track down all the perpetrators of the attack and ensure justice is served.

“We will seek out every person that was involved in planning, funding, and execution of this attack. We are on the highest alert and we shall remain so,” said the President.

While condemning  the attack “in the strongest possible terms”, the President stressed: “In the coming days and weeks, we shall continue the never-ending work of strengthening our systems. From the means available Judicial arms, we will continue taking every step to make our nation inhospitable to terrorist groups and their networks,” he stated.

Uhuru commended all the fighting teams who helped neutralise the attack declaring that the country was ready to take any threat head-on as well as return to work.

As would be expected, Kenya’s tech industry champions instantly took to various social media channels to condole and eulogise the departed six Cellulant geeks.

In a tweet Mamma B ‏said: “@Cellulant: “They saved your colleagues before they met their untimely end. Please spread the word till @UKenyatta honors them posthumously.”

These six young men all worked in the same IT firm @cellulant in Nairobi’s 14 Riverside Drive complex. They were killed in the #DusitAttack earlier this week. Thoughts and prayers with their families and colleagues tweeted Rachael Akidi, Head of East Africa Languages – BBC World Service.

Wambui Kimathi ‏ @wahoseah said: My heart goes out to the families of these young men. May God grant you peace.

Moses Kiprop ‏ stated: “My heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, relatives and dev family of these departed geeks. To Cellulant it isn’t the end but just a bend, you shall soar even higher and roar louder as a special tribute to them. Till we meet guys.”

Cellulant is a leading Pan-African payments company providing a one-stop digital payments platform. Cellulant’s belief in providing solutions to everyday challenges across Africa has led to digitizing payments end-to-end for various value chains and as a result providing increased transparency and broader reach within a single mobile commerce platform for financial sector players.

Cellulant is on a mission to build the number one payments business solutions in Africa; led by values-driven by entrepreneurial-minded people. In pursuit of this mission, Cellulant has commenced the third iteration of its business strategy anchored on consumer payments, internet payments and marketplace payments. This is aimed at fixing Africa’s payments problems by connecting 700 million mobile users to payments that power their daily lives.

In her brief statement: Laura Chite CEO CIO East Africa said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones of the innocent people who died in the terrorist attack at 14 Riverside Drive – Dusit2 and Office Complex in Nairobi. We will also never forget all maimed by the heinous attackers. We’ll continue to celebrate the heroes who braved the dreadful scene protecting the freedom and sovereignty of Kenya.”