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"id": 1402164,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1402164/?format=api",
"text_counter": 233,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "were to ban gambling in this country, would we also fold the Sports Fund because 90 percent of the whole Sports Fund budget comes from gambling? What would that mean for the athletes and the sporting activities that rely heavily on gambling? I know it is a chicken-and-egg issue, but it was imperative for me to understand that above and beyond relying on gambling money to support sporting activities, but we need to think as a country beyond that. We need to start thinking of income generating activities around that industry. For instance, look at what some of our notable runners are doing – opening training facilities and camps and turning them into a sports tourism kind of economic activity. I asked the stakeholders if absence of gambling they were going to fold up those institutions. I have heard Sen. Sifuna referencing that we should not regulate, that we are too much on rules and people should be left to be free. No! There is an extremely thin line between an organized society that is responsible for its people and anarchy. Therefore, when we are legislating, we are not legislating because we want to get into people’s houses to control them, but because there is a fact here that gambling is destroying our communities. Gambling is the source of so many ill activities and so much sorrow. In so many households, women are literally having to deal with not only the issue of their spouses having substance abuse, but gambling. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as responsible legislators, we are not entering the private spaces of people to control who and what they believe in, but what we are doing is we want to be responsible leaders to ensure that even within our freedoms we are still able to safeguard, for instance, our children. I am glad that Senator Karen Nyamu has stood up to clarify that her Bill and even the Motion that we were discussing here on Aluta Sunday has nothing to do with adults, but everything to do with parents parenting and ensuring that our children have safe spaces. Any person who is under the age of 18 years does not have the capacity to make decisions to a certain extent, as much as they think they do. That is why we always say they need to have guardians, parents or someone who is responsible for them. If you are earning money and want to spend all of it on gambling, you might wonder; who are we, as leaders, to come in and say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Yes, it is your freedom, but we are ensuring that within this space of gambling, there has to be some order in that disorder. If you ask me, gambling is a disorder. We all have rights and freedoms. So, how then can we ensure that we are responsibly safeguarding the lives of citizens in this disorder? To hear that a youthful Kenyan has committed suicide because they have lost a little bit more than Kshs100,000 on gambling, that in itself should touch the minds and the souls of the Senators in this House, so that they understand that as much as we are adults, some of us still need to be guided. That is why within a county, we still elect a governor to be able to lead the people. We still elect a Senator to be able to lead the people. Otherwise, we would also say all these people are adults, they can lead themselves. I strongly believe that this Bill is very timely and above and beyond the issue of organizing the taxes that are being collected on gambling, it is an issue of trying to direct a society back into the moral path that we need to be in. When I say moral path, I am not talking about religion or biases. I am talking about some level of financial management The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}