Sh36m SportPesa winner used to clean cars for employer's clients

Peter Byegon and his wife, Ivone, pose with a Sh36 million dummy cheque he won in betting. [PHOTO: WILBERFORCE OKWIRI/STANDARD]

A 28-year-old man who used to wash cars is probably Kenya's newest millionaire.

Peter Byegon won Sh36 million SportPesa bet after correctly predicting outcomes of 16 football matches out of 17 in the English Premier League over the weekend.

Byegon, who used to earn Sh300 daily working in a local hotel where he was made to clean clients' cars, was elated by the win.

He not only won millions, but also made history by recording the highest number of correct predictions.

According to Esther Kang'ethe, SportPesa Marketing and Communication manager, Byegon was the first to make 16 correct predictions, and came one bet close to pocketing Sh143 million.

"It is always 12, 13 or 15. He just missed one game otherwise he would have been Sh143 million richer now," said Ms Kang'ethe.

Dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans and a Barclays Premier league branded T-shirt, Byegon's win is a tale straight out of Alice in Wonderland.

To begin with, he won the millions after betting using a friend's phone.

"I left work at noon. I was so tired and felt fed up with it. I slept for a while before going to check on a friend whom I had borrowed his phone to place bets," said Byegon.

Secondly, he said, he had no idea about the strengths or weaknesses of the teams he bet on.

"I was not even analysing. I was just placing bets here and there and it is the last game between Manchester City and Arsenal that sealed my fate," he said.

He went back to see the friend on Sunday to confirm the progress of his bets.

Then it hit him that he could be the next millionaire in town.

"Hapo nilijua hii kitu tumechukua (I knew right away I have won)," he said.

His arrival at the Thika Road Mall in Nairobi from his home in Uthiru Kiambu County was delayed by two hours as his neighbours are said to have blocked the limousine sent to pick him, demanding to know who the millionaire was.

When the limousine stopped outside the mall, shoppers rushed to capture its important passenger on their smartphones.

Few expected the passenger to be a slender young man in muddy white sports shoes accompanied by his 21-year-old wife Ivone and their six-month-old baby.

With money, comes power, Byegon did not wait for the Sh36,089,533 million cheque to be in his hand before exercising that power.

His first order? A cold soda.

The soda delayed the hand over of the cheque for another 15 minutes.

But when the drink came, he opened his heart.

"I would really love to see the look on my former boss' face when he sees me," he said.

As for what kind of business he had in mind, the newest millionaire in town had no idea, at least not at that moment.

"I have not thought about the kind of business I want to do, but it is about time I became independent," he said.

SportPesa promised to help Byegon, who did not have a bank account, get a financial adviser to guide him on how best to spend his windfall.