What exactly is Jaro Soja’s agenda?
Ardent football fan Jared Otieno Obonyo alias Jaro Soja continues to baffle many, thanks to both his increasing popularity on the sporting scene and motive behind the same.
Four years after bursting onto the scene with a peculiar dressing style and trademark walkie talkie, the 35 year old is now a celebrity in his own right, with a fan base in tow, and a fully fledged Facebook page where he update his ‘fans’ of the daily happenings in his life.
Three more fan pages are also dedicating to him on the same social media platform.
Interestingly, the Odando Primary School and Hono Secondary School alumnus has attained these levels by amassing an influence through the media on a carefully worked out bit by bit basis.
Not a single week passes by without Jaro Soja conducting a media interview with one of the several outlets available (he is a consistent guest on a vernacular radio station).
While on that platform, he carefully and strategically drives his agenda while hoping his audience will look at him as just, but, an ordinary football fan.
Word has it that he has recently agreed to a secret ‘endorsement’ deal with a popular company to which he is used to drive fans back in the stadium.
Jaro has also lately taken to ‘addressing’ press conferences in public functions before or after the main guests have spoken.
This is one man who rarely misses an opportunity to pose strategically behind political figures or football administrators in public forums.
‘GOVERNMENT JOB’
The chap is also said to call journalists and volunteering ‘quotes’ or photos to be used in newspapers, online pages and TV; content he religiously retains.
Jaro Soja’s breakthrough perhaps came last November when he finally got to meet President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House.
He himself claims the President reached out to him through emissaries. Whatever the case, the visit to the house on the hill changed the man’s life for the better.
That appointment handed him a Government job and an extra wad of cash rumoured to be in six digit which he used to open up a metal workshop.
Strangely though, Jaro Soja seems to have no time for his work. He will often be spotted around and about town, in football matches and at press conferences during working days.
On a few occasions he has even been seen dishing out money to fans to buy tickets and watch league matches.
Meanwhile, officials at the Sports Stadia Management Board (SSMB), who are his employers, are reluctant to comment on his job description, terming it as a ‘sensitive’ issue.
Apart from President Kenyatta, other senior politicians such as Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyokand, several MPs alongside Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario are also said to be Jaro Soja’s personal acquaintances.
Besides, his fame has earned him countless international trips with Gor Mahia and the national football team Harambee Stars.
So, who exactly is this chap and what is he upto?