Accumulating M-Pesa payment entries means the world to this Nairobi man
An attendant makes an M-Pesa transaction for a customer at Samrat supermarket in Nyeri County on February 12, 2019. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Before I tell you who Patrick is in my network of boys, I will narrate about a certain conviction he has about getting his own house this year.
Our boy talk at the local was uncharacteristically off the BBI, reggae that can't be stopped, the EPL, eaten fare and such stuff.
We spoke for hours on end about Patrick’s conviction that the next time Safaricom announces a Lipa na M-Pesa house winner, he will be the guy getting a three-bedroom apartment.
Three Kenyans have already won houses from Safaricom, the first being a policeman in Kwale County; the second a quarry worker in Nyeri County and the third, a security guard in Uasin Gishu County.
Patrick has this strong feeling that he will neighbour these winners, who will be six in total. Not a very wild dream but given the number of entries being considered, all we can wish him is luck.
There is usually no point opposing Patrick because he spends most of his working hours discussing things on PowerPoint.
And my clique of boys has this morbid fear of people who point at walls and produce graphs to argue things till “the end, thank you”.
He is an ambitious guy, this Patrick. Back in high school, he used to play rugby yet he is quite diminutive.
He would make every player on the pitch a Goliath but as the saying goes, it is not the size of the dog in the fight that matters but the size of the fight in that dog. And Patrick actually loves a good fight.
Right now he is working at a tech start-up in the outskirts of Nairobi and you can say he is in the process of getting his stuff together.
The girls keep eating his fare but he is having feelings about one who does not eat too much. He is thinking of taking things to the next level, though we’re not too sure about the lass he’s fallen for.
He is already dreaming of his first car, buying some land and all that jazz. But a house tops his priorities.
We have fantasised, times without number, about how things would have been better if what we pay in rent went towards house purchases.
We would be homeowners very soon, but rent paying isn’t a mortgage and that is a fact we have to live with.
That is why Patrick is hoping for a miracle with the latest Lipa na M-Pesa promotion. He knows it is one entry earned for every Sh100 spent, and you should see how he insists on paying for drinks at the local through M-Pesa.
We checked yesterday and he had amassed 1,440 entries. I have 947 and Jojez, another guy in the boys’ squad has 1,002. Sizla didn’t want to reveal his tally. Always a secretive, overweight dunce.
To be honest, we are all optimistic of winning something. There are six houses and eight tractors to be won by the time the competition ends on March 5, and none of us will complain if we win any of that.
We understand Safaricom has also been picking random winners and refunding what they spent while paying via M-Pesa, and yesterday Jojez described how elated he would be if Safaricom refunded him just after his monthly shopping.
He became a dad not too long ago and has been complaining about the way diapers, baby wipes and all have been making his monthly shopping bill sag.
Patrick asked that we pray for him to win a house. I didn’t promise anything but I actually want him to win it.
He has gone through a lot due to his humble beginnings so a house will be a big boost.
He would educate his two brothers a lot easier if he wasn’t worrying about rent.
If not Safaricom, he believes he will get a house from somewhere else this year.
Who knows? He is a man of faith and 2020 is still very young.
