Maybe this comes after I wrote an article explaining how Safaricom is working together with third parties to steal from Kenyans . Read here I apologize in advance If this blog post causes anxiety. Ponyoka na Pick Up, Bonyeza Ushinde, Shinda Na Mpesa etc etc….the list of “competitions” that Safaricom has been rolling out to their very loyal and esteemed clients is endless, some have even faded from memory. With every competition nearly half of their subscribers try their all to be among the ‘Lucky Winners’.
I have tried some, won none, but I have no hard feelings because I understand that the odds of me winning are as low as they can ever get, and that the same low odds apply to every person that is having a go at the competition…….or is it?
Now forget the big promotional competitions I have mentioned above. My post today has been inspired by something I stumbled upon on twitter today by accident. We have all seen these small small competitions on social media platforms from all mobile service providers.
They usually come in hash tags and they require those willing to participate to take part in some sort of a trivia where the ones with the most correct answers (or in most cases the ones with the fastest correct answers) walk away with fabulous gifts like smartphones, gift hampers or money in the form of airtime.
So on a bright Friday afternoon, I Kaana, son of Kaana was scrolling through the time line minding my own business, retweeting this and that, favouriting this and that when suddenly a certain hash-tag caught my eye, The #SafFunFriday, here are the rules on how the said game is played Well it looked like fun to me but owing to my history of bad luck at not winning anything (I was in that Mwass/Wamuyu battalion that choked the TL with our Samsung Pocket Galaxy tweets some years ago).
So I decided to take a scroll (Damn, put that on my name) on the official Safaricom handle that was handling the competition i.e @Safaricom_Care. I could see from their timeline how the winners were being notified of their success, so I clicked one handle belonging ‘winner’….I Collapsed. I will let screenshots do the talking from here on wards. Here is @Safaricom_Care giving the Potential Winners’ a heads up. The curious me decided to click on the handles of them lucky tweeps so that I can learn the tactics they used to be the winners in a competition that has more than 200,000+ tweeps. Here is @vura_gatonye ‘s Timeline No #SafFunFriday hashtag Here is @yogustine ‘s timeline Again no #SafFunFriday, and it’s identical to Vura’s Here is @thuo_leah ‘s timeline Same shit Here is @Toms_ngugis ‘s same story and here is @TinaWaghanga ‘s Comrades, I don’t know whether to cry or laugh, we are in January, some of us are playing the 0-0-1 formation (No Breakfast – No Lunch – Rice For Supper) and yet someone called Safaricom thinks he can play around with our money and hopes…DISRESPECTFUL!!!! That is just the tip of the iceberg though. the situation was the same for these handles too (You can verify) nearly all the handles above have the same tweets posted at the same exact time!! Telekinesis is real, here are the handles, check the timelines for yourselves
@staczu @WMvuta @YusufYusufmohha @zacharymarle @ZKureta @vincent72340061
But these following screenshots are the ones that made me break the thermos I was holding here is @Safaricom_Care announcing the ‘winners’ Here is @PETERWILSHERE ‘s very busy Timeline, I couldn’t keep up with his thousands of tweets Then there was this Tina whose timeline we have just shown above there. Then, somehow sensing I was onto them, they tweeted this to ‘clarify’ a certain ‘winner’, blaming it on a typo I went to the new ‘True winners’ @peterwilshere10 timeline and he was protected by the blood of Jesus , how convenient 1000 bob is not money to make me cry over. Yes I am bitter for never winning anything, but why on earth would a big company that loves portraying itself as the symbol of integrity partake in such lowlife schemes? I am appalled.
My Theory? All these online winners are parody accounts created by Safaricom, so they make you use your resources to take part in these little games and in the end they get your money and they keep that prize money that you thought you were competing for. Bob I am disappointed in you, the only thing that can make me forgive you right now is you sponsoring me to shoot a video. STOP PLAYING WITH US SAFARICOM!!
CREDIT TO TWITTER USER Eugene Kaana