Internet Tycoon Carey Eaton Murdered In Kenya

Carey Eaton, an Australian-born internet entrepreneur and founder of One Africa Media, the largest online classifieds company in Africa, has been murdered in an armed robbery attack in Nairobi, Kenya, according to news reports.
The Kenyan newspaper, The Daily Nation, reported that Eaton, 41, was shot at a friend’s house in an upmarket suburb in Nairobi during an armed robbery attack on Thursday morning.  ”The deceased was at a friend’s party where four armed robbers appeared and demanded money. He was shot as he attempted to dash away from the scene,” police spokeswoman Zipporah Mboroki told the AFP.

Carey Eaton

Eaton was born in Australia, but he also had Kenyan citizenship since he was a third generation Kenyan. He was previously the Chief Information Officer of SEEK.com.au, an Australian job-finding website. He moved to Kenya in 2010 where he cofounded the online classifieds business One Africa Media, which owns stakes in Nigerian job portal Jobberman, property listing site Private Property, travel booking site Safarinow and Cheki, Africa’s largest car classifieds site. One Africa Media had operations in at least 8 African countries, and in 2013, the company raised $20 million in funding from Eaton’s former employer, SEEK.
Tributes have been pouring in for the slain entrepreneur, with several of Eaton’s friends, colleagues and associates taking to social media to mourn his death and pay their tributes.
Erik Hersman, a co-founder of tech accelerator the Savannah Fund, referred to the late Eaton as “one of the true sparks of genius in Kenya’s tech ecosystem” in a blog post; while Iroko TV founder Jason Njoku called the deceased entrepreneur “a pioneer in African internet technology.”
Eaton leaves behind a wife and 4 children.
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