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{
    "id": 1348104,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1348104/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 238,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kibwezi West, MCCP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mwengi Mutuse",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, I join the Members of the Departmental Committee on Sports and Culture, the promoter of this Bill, the Leader of the Majority Party and the Members who have contributed this afternoon in supporting the enactment of the Gambling Control Bill. We support this because we have to create a society that believes in the values of hard work. We support this because our youth are the leaders that will inherit this country. For them to inherit this country and take it forward, it is important that from the outset, good values and ethics are impacted upon them. We have reached a point where gambling has become an alternative to people going to their farms to till. We have reached a point in this country where gambling is becoming an alternative for young people instead of school. Many of them are now beginning to argue that you do not need a university degree to gamble and therefore it has become an alternative to people going to school. We have reached a point where people only need to wake up and find crafty ways of obtaining a smart phone and some airtime so that they begin to engage in gambling as a source of income. Unlike what has been explained, gambling can never be a source of sustainable and regular income. Secondly, most of the gambling firms that we have operating around are owned by foreigners. And because the sector has not been regulated, it has caused a lot of capital flight. People come here with funny lotteries and promotions and get licensed. They have M-Pesa digits which collect billions and billions of money but the money is not invested in the country. There has not been a clear mechanism for them paying taxes so that those taxes can impact in terms of our country’s development. Therefore, because of the unregulated nature of the gambling and lottery industry, a lot of the money is being shipped from our economy and it partly explains why our economy is suffering in terms of cash flow. The requirement that the corporations, firms and companies that will be licensed to carry out gambling must have a minimum of 30 per cent shareholding that is local, is in itself very noble. Turning to taxation in terms of whether as proposed in the Bill we should tax at 15 per cent or reduce to the percentage proposed by the Committee at 13 per cent, I support the sentiments by Members that that taxation must be set using an objective criterion. By objective criteria I mean, we must do the delicate balancing of collecting the sin tax so as to apply it to developing the social fabric of those who may have been affected by gambling. Also, counter balance it with interest of those who are investing. This broadly speaks to our taxation regime in comparison with our neighbouring countries and also those countries that are in competition The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}