As a rule, I don’t gamble. Or take part in lotteries. My last attempt in such ended in premium tears.
The year was 2009.Coca Cola was a running a lottery titled ‘ Wahi Kuwahi’ All you needed to do was get a bottle top written ‘Wahi’ then match it with another one written ‘Kuwahi’.That would enable you claim the prize on the top, which ranged from t-shirts, sodas and cash money.
It was very easy to get the matching bottle tops that won sodas, footballs and t-shirts etc. But the ones for cash money were hard to come by. A bottle top to win one million would be in a forgotten village in Murang’a, its matching top would be somewhere in the sands of Wajir, being stepped on by camels.
So one day I opened up a soda and bang! I had landed on a top that was to win Ksh 1 million. But I had no matching top. I shared the one-million-shilling news with one of my friends and he said that he knew a friend who had a matching top. We figured out that if we could combine the two tops, we would go to Coca Cola offices, claim the prize money and split into two. Easy, does it?
So my friend called his friend and convinced him to agree that we combine the efforts to claim the jackpot. He agreed, but said that he had no fare. I sent him Ksh 2k being the bus fare from Kapsurwa or someplace like that. He promised to be in Nairobi in three days’ time.
One the day I was to get half a million, the guy called and said that their bus had been attacked by bandits near Lodwar.So he needed more money to fly to Nairobi since roads were dangerous. I sent him another 3k for air ticket from Lokichoggio to Nairobi.
One the day he was to land in Nairobi, I bought several wallets and left for the city without telling anybody where I was going. I waited and waited for him, but the guy didn’t turn up. When I called his phone, it was off. I had been conned.
I hurled the winning bottle top into a sewer and went home. After I failed ‘kuwahi’ half a million and got conned in the process, I said goodbye to lotteries.