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{
    "id": 1402168,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1402168/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 237,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wambua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13199,
        "legal_name": "Enoch Kiio Wambua",
        "slug": "enoch-kiio-wambua"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Gambling Control Bill (National Assembly Bills No.70 of 2023); a Government Bill from the National Assembly. Before I go to the contents of the Bill, allow me to say that gambling has become a near menace in this country. Both young people and adults are losing money in billions to briefcase gamblers and institutions that you cannot even trace where they have come from. From the onset, I am pleased that, at least, there is an attempt to bring order into this messy industry. I will limit my comments to this Bill to three parts including Part II, Part III, and Part IV of the Bill. I begin by saying that in many cases where we are dealing with shared functions between the national Government and the county governments, the role of the national Government is largely limited to setting standards and policies. We are the House mandated by the Constitution to defend devolution and to protect the interests of counties and their governments. In this National Assembly Bill, I do not see the protection of devolved units in Part II of this Bill. I say this because the licensing of businesses and gambling activities is made a reserve of the national Government by this Bill. The only role of the county government in receiving money from people who set up gambling houses only make their money from issuing permits to business premises. As a House that is responsible for fighting for devolution, one of the biggest conversations that we should be having is how to open up revenue streams for county governments. This Bill does not open that stream. It makes a very big river of a revenue stream for the national Government through the issuance of licenses to gambling activities and provides a very small stream to county governments through just the issuance of permits for premises. This is a matter that when it comes to Third Reading, we should propose amendments. This is because the bulk of this will be happening in towns and counties. This is an opportunity for counties to issue licenses for businesses, not just permits for the business premises. I say this because my view, and I believe that was the view of the drafters of the Constitution 2010, is that progressively, county governments are supposed to collect more own-source-revenue and rely less on the Exchequer releases from the national Government. When we get to Third Reading, as I said, we will be proposing amendments to right that wrong. While at it, I remember that I had made a legislative proposal on the separation of the National Treasury and Planning from the Ministry of Finance. Some of these things will be addressed if we actualize our thinking on how we separate those operations between the National Treasury and Planning and the Ministry of Finance. Without urging Members and colleagues to go slow on a Bill like this, as a leader in this House, at times I wonder why is it that when we receive Bills from the National Assembly, we are in so much in a hurry to process and pass them, yet when we send Bills to the National Assembly for concurrence, they take forever to process, if they ever do. I think a time is coming, and perhaps now is when we should pay back in the same currency. 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."
}