Silicon Solutions Limited, a betting and lottery firm, came into the betting space with a bang, literally promising the sky, at a cost of only Sh 50.

The firm, with its headquarters in Westlands, Nairobi, sold to thousands of gamblers the dream of flying away with a private plane, a Beechcraft Baron 58 aircraft.

And that plane was not all the lucky winner of the mega jackpot would get. The winner was also promised a cool Sh2 million, perhaps to help them fuel the plane for their first ride to the coast.

The Beechcraft Baron 58 is a light, twin-engine piston aircraft developed by an American company. It is marketed as a small business plane but is mostly used by private operators. The model costs about Sh140 million or more depending on the year of manufacture and the variant.

This was the first lottery in Kenya that promised winners an aircraft. It was an immediate hit. The raffle game became a sensation in town and participants waited with bated breath to see who among them will be new owner of a plane. 

To get in the game, one was required to buy at least one ticket and the more ambitious ones were allowed to stretch their luck and buy up to 30 tickets a day.

Build confidence

This means the spend per person was between Sh50 and Sh1,500 daily. Every ticket was automatically entered into the Grand Draw where the ultimate winner of the Beechcraft Baron 58 was to be unveiled, on Friday, May 18.

The last official update from the firm on its Facebook page was on May 17, a day to the D-Day. The firm told its followers that they had just one more day to try their luck at winning the Beechcraft Baron.

“We have just 1 day to our Grand Draw. Have you bought your lottery ticket? Send 50Ksh or more to Paybill 295050, a/c no. SHINDA and see yourself fly away with the Beech Craft Baron plus 2 million Kenya shillings,” the firm wrote. Then all went silent.

Five months after the draw was done, a cloud of mystery still surrounds the winner of the lottery dubbed Pepea Na Finje, which means get to fly with just Sh50 of a bet.

Unlike its previous winners who were publicly announced and their photos splashed all over social media, a practice used by betting firms to build confidence among its customers to continue trying their luck, the firm chose to keep the winner of the aircraft secret, when it mattered most. 

Its website has been suspended and its social media pages have not been updated for some time. The company is no longer as swift as it used to be during the promotion, responding to inquiries if a winner was ever found.

Contacted, the firm said the winner chose to remain anonymous and it respected his wishes.

A woman who only identified herself as Yvonne said the lucky winner declined to take the aircraft and instead opted to take cash. 

But she could not remember the name of the winner, his average age, address, profession, county of birth or any other detail that would help us identify him other than his gender.

Three shareholders

Yvonne also refused to tell us her second name. She said the company did the draw as planned and a winner was found. She asked us to verify the information with the Betting Control and Licensing Board if in doubt.

A search at the company registry showed the firm has three shareholders, James Ndirangu Kamau who holds 100 shares, Kamunyu Kimani Daniel, 500 shares and Mwaniki Ronald Kimani, 100 shares. We contacted Mr Kimani who asked us to visit the firm’s head office in Westlands. Kimani said he had already left the company. When we visited the firm’s head office in Westlands on Friday last week, we found only three employees at their desks.

They declined to talk about the raffle and would not give any other details beyond what Yvonne gave. They also flatly refused to give the contacts of its directors or anyone authorised to speak to the media.

The other key contact person who worked on the promotion declined to comment on record, but revealed that they never saw any aircraft and were just employees who had a job to do, did it, and then left. The employees said when they also asked questions on the winner, they got no answers.

A notice at the firm shows that it also offers bulk SMS services, promotions, e-commerce, M-banking, among other services. 

The firm said winners are notified immediately after the draws are done.

Thereafter, it organises how they get to their offices where a verification process is conducted and then they sign a document acknowledging receipt of their prize.

Mr Antony Kimani, the chairman of the Betting Control and Licensing Board, said the company presented all the registration documents of the aircraft to its officers.

He added that his officers were also present during the draw that was conducted to find the lucky winner. But he did not have the details of the winner and did not see the aircraft itself. “I am aware that the winner opted to be given cash instead of the aircraft because he did not want it,” Kimani said. But he did not have the specific details as well and could not tell how much money the winner was given.

Cosy relationship

This means that Kenyans may never know just who was the first winner of an aircraft in a raffle in the country. It also raises fresh queries on the cosy relationship between the regulator and those regulated in the gambling industry.

The betting board is under the Interior Ministry and is responsible for regulating betting, lotteries and gaming activities through formulation and issuing of policy guidelines. Kimani said the betting law allows betting companies to give the money equivalent and that there was nothing wrong with it.

“If you win a Range Rover and you do not want it, you can take cash. We made sure they brought us the documents and our officers were present during the draw,” he said.

During the life of the lottery, one of the queries from its customers was why it was taking too long to pay.

One of its customers by the name Emmanuel Michael on Facebook fumed why he did not receive his raffle ticket during the day after he made his deposit, only for the company to send it to him four hours after conducting the draw. In betting, one needs to have the tickets and numbers before the draw to match them with the winning numbers. If the opposite happens, the integrity of the process is compromised.

In its response, the company explained that once a player paid their Sh50 through their 295050 Paybill account, their raffle is automatically generated and sent to their phone numbers.

“In some instances, the ticket number is generated and sent but doesn’t get delivered for one reason or the other,” the firm explained.  

pwafula@standardmedia.co.ke