Kenya, May 28 -- I don't know how many times I looked at my M-Pesa balance, hoping it would magically increase. One day, it showed Ksh 17. I was a 29-year-old man without a job, living in a small room on the edge of town.
My landlord said he would kick me out, my girlfriend stopped answering my calls, and I hadn't eaten anything good in almost two days.
But that morning, something inside me refused to give up. I went to my neighbour's house, a man I didn't know well, and asked him for Ksh 500. I told him it was for food.
But in reality, I used it to place one last bet. It was a bet on 9 different football teams with very low chances of winning. I didn't even follow football much anymore. I just picked teams at random and prayed.
That night, I didn't check the results. I went to bed early, half hoping to wake up to a new day and half wishing I wouldn't wake up at all. But what happened the next morning changed everything. Continue reading
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Bana Kenya.