Friends and colleagues of One Africa Media’s Carey Eaton have taken to social media and this website to mourn his death and pay tribute to him.

Eaton, the co-founder of online marketplace business One Africa Media, died on Thursday after an armed robbery at his friend’s house in Nairobi.

Carey, a Kenyan native, returned to the East African nation in 2011 after being the chief information officer (CIO) of Australian classifieds group SEEK.

Carey went on to play an important role in growing Cheki into Kenya’s biggest online car portal and helping to grow One Africa Media to 150 people. One Africa Media is also well known for websites such as online jobs finding tool Jobberman and Private Property.

Founder of South African e-commerce website BidorBuy.co.za and managing director of uAfrica.com, Andy Higginss, tweeted on Thursday, “Extremely sad day. Africa has lost a true inspiration. One Africa Media’s Carey Eaton dies after armed robbery.”

Toronto-based Pakistani-Afghan-Persian chef Shayma Saadat tweeted, “Carey, senior to me in school in Nairobi, a friend, an amazing Kenyan entrepreneur, shot dead. What a difficult week .”

Meanwhile, comments with tributes have also been made to Eaton on ITWeb Africa’s story of the murder.

Details regarding his death are sketchy though.

But Kenya’s Standard Digital has reported that police have said “Carey, 41 succumbed to head injuries in hospital after the shooting happened as a gang forced their way into a house he and his colleagues were in.”

Carey's Twitter account has also not been shut down yet at the time of writing. One of his last tweets was of a television interview with him at One Africa Media's offices (watch below).