:: The cellphone competition returns
1 March 2007

I love Kalembe Ndile. The guy makes me laugh. I am such a fan of his clown like activities; I am considering starting a fan club. Honest to God. Today’s post has less to do with his humourful nature and more to do with one of the projects he had initiated to help his Kibwezi constituents. He had offered up his large 4x4 vehicle for a draw in an SMS competition. The idea was that dudes had to SMS a number and one of them would eventually win Kalembe's mot. Unfortunately, there was no one who was winning said mot and there were questions raised about the whole competition. Kalembe had to come on TV and try and explain what was going down (which I clearly didn't get). There was an upside to this debacle. The betting control and licensing board (BCLB) were suddenly on the spot as the thing was now in the mainstream media. The board have always been quite able to regulate the betting industry but this was a new medium and no one really understood it. Using your cellphone to enter a competition was new to Kenya. I guess they must have been wondering about that. Lemme explain how the SMS competition works then. A company offers a prize and one is required to call or SMS using their cell phone and follow instructions. As part of their entry, they are usually charged a certain fee above the normal call charges (usually Ksh30 or Ksh50 or some fee thereabouts)

Watch this trophy being handed out live

Over the last five years or so, the mobile phone value added services industry has been growing in leaps and bounds. And even as the more legit (read non thieving) arm of the business (like David Mugomba) has been providing some valuable services, there has been a growth too of some dubious services. The most common of these competitions had a vehicle as a prize. In what is the classic example of these types of competitions, a dude drives up in a Nissan matatu on our TV screens and then makes an offer. Win a matatu worth a lot of money like the one he was driving for only Kshs50 shillings. All one had to do was call the 0900 number and follow instructions and YOU COULD BE A WINNER!!! (They always shout when they are making these offers).

The more nefarious of these had to be those alleged game shows that were being screened on TV. I remember noticing these shows when I was watching a football match several months ago. Usually a very attractive girl would run a very simple competition. For instance, one would be given two photographs and then asked to call in and state the difference. The more interesting part is that the show hostess would give you hints as to what the difference would be, perhaps subtly pointing at the part of the picture that is different. Eventually one caller would get through and win the money which was usually between Kshs4,000 - 6,000. The shows started on KBC and eventually NTV too got that virus.

One competition really rankled. It was a shameless lie if I have ever heard a lie. Win a shamba in the Mavoko county council these guys said. They would run this program during the news. This is the same news where we were watching dudes in Mavoko complaining about their land (illegally allocated) as the property that had been erected on a road reserve was being demolished by bulldozers. Argghh!!! That one really got under my skin.

After the Kalembe incident, action had to be taken. Clearly something smelled in the SMS competition scene. The BCLB cancelled all of them. These TV shows have been off our boxes from January. Sweet. I have espied the first SMS promo in the new era where the BCLB has a clue about the new mobile business. This is the gotea dimba promotion. Our friends at Mango had to "jump hoops" to be given a license to run this one. The competition involves calling and getting a chance to attend the FA cup finals and UEFA Champions’ League finals later in the year (LIVE!). They had to run things strictly legit unlike in the olden days (pre-Kalembe 4X4 mess). This involved buying the tickets to the actual matches they are offering as prizes. And they had to buy the tickets to Athens and London and present them to the BCLB for verification. Now that’s what I call legit business. This cuts out the nonsense of the previous months where promises were made but never delivered. After all how does a pal deliver a title deed to Mavoko county council when they are clearly bogus? It’s about time.

To the winners of the competitions, good luck who ever you are. This is nice one. My question though. Arsenal was at the Champions league final in Paris last year. Where were you gotea guys then? Mushindwe!

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