It started like most calls from a stranger. “Hi. Is this Kepher Okoth?”

It was a sunny afternoon and Okoth was at the shop in Rongo in Migori where he repairs motorcycles for a living.

Okoth thought the person on the end of the line was lying when they told him that he had won KES5 million in the “Shine Kenya Shinda Mamilii Kama Bingwa” promotion.

Still skeptical, and because he has had his fair share of ups and downs in life, he turned to his wife.

“She was also doubtful. She said it’s a lie,” he recalled, and Zuhura Akoth had good reasons.

“There are a lot of scammers nowadays who send messages on false winnings, so I told him maybe those are conmen,” she recalled.

It was like a dream for the couple, and especially for Okoth, and he still appeared to be in a daze when he received the dummy cheque for the amount at a ceremony at Safaricom headquarters on Friday.

As a young boy, Okoth had to drop out of school in 2014.

The firstborn in a family of four, Okoth chose to abandon formal education in Standard Eight to become a bodaboda rider.

“I chose to stop going to school and look for a job because I wanted to support my parents financially,” he said.

He then got a chance to learn how to service and repair motorcycle engines while continuing with his bodaboda job.

“The bodaboda job was okay, but it wasn’t giving me good money, so I moved jobs to become a motorcycle mechanic, and that’s what I do to date,” he said.

He also tries his hand in the usual economic activity for people in his locality, which is to raise cattle for milk, maize for food and the surplus for sale, and sugarcane, which has had its ups and downs.

The father of two learnt from a young age that he had to do what he had to do to make ends meet, and reckoned he was doing what it takes to bring up his young family.

When the dust settled, Okoth and his wife went to the Safaricom shop in Rongo, and the attendants there soon confirmed that he was indeed the winner.

All it cost him was a data bundle he bought for KES20.

Life has now changed, or could change.

In addition to the KES5 million, he also received KES1 million from the Safaricom Foundation to support a community project of his choice in his home area.

His KES5 million will help improve his family’s life, he said, and he now plans to use some of the money to open his own motorcycle repair garage, purchase a piece of land, build a house, and buy a 14-seater matatu for a transport business. He also intends to support his wife by helping her start a business.

For the additional KES1 million from the Safaricom Foundation meant to support a community project, Okoth plans to help renovate and furnish three classrooms and connect water in his former primary school, Kitere Primary School.