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{
    "id": 1626186,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1626186/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 158,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "That is why I want to persuade my colleagues that turning our backs on our countrymen and women that are struggling with this menace is not an act of leadership. It will be an act of cowardice on our part. While we may not agree with their choices, we pass law in this House for the people that we agree with and those that we do not agree with. I do not know even how to gamble. I have never gambled in my life, but I am fully aware that so many of the young people that vote for me to come to this House battle with gambling addictions. I must provide a regulatory framework for them to have an entity that will look straight into the eye of these betting firms and tell them to look after their customers and provide support services to them if they get to addiction. The CSR support that Sen. Cherarkey was talking about must be provided, so that you counterbalance between the force of good and evil in the society. At the end of the day, if there are challenges that they have brought about in the society, how have they counterbalanced it? Everybody knows that the biggest contributors in this day and age in the sporting world are these betting firms across the globe. They sponsor the biggest of sporting franchises out there. They develop gymnasiums and stadia. Therefore, I urge my colleagues that while looking at this topic, let us be mindful of the fact that this is not a simple decision that you can just make and say we choose to look away. First, you need to have an authority. The current regulator, Betting Licensing Control Board (BLCB) is just a department in one of the offices here. You need an authority that has representation from almost all spheres of society, including even religious institutions; those who will have the courage to sit in that board. This is so that when you set the tough conditions, the firms live by the rules, play by the rules, and we protect many citizens that continue to battle and struggle in this space. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I urge colleagues that have taken time to read through this Report. I appreciate that it has been a protracted battle between the Senate and the National Assembly, their perspective of things. There are many things we had included, including taxes that we proposed. If you remember, we had actually proposed something akin to a sin tax, to ensure that we dissuade young people. Unfortunately, when these people went to the mediation, it was dropped because I know the National Assembly will never agree to any tax proposition coming from the Senate. Of course, the matter was not even given a chance. I knew that proposition had the chance of a snowball in hell the minute he left this House, so long as it was going to get to the National Assembly because they do not view this for what it is. It is a broader conversation about what is the space of Senate with regards to taxation and so on and so forth. Therefore, we lost it at that. One of the members who moved that proposal on taxation was to sort that issue that I had proposed or that I had spoken to earlier between how we chose to administer betting and the difference in approach we took between us and Tanzania. Unfortunately, since that was lost in the mediation, I concede. We must be able to achieve the greater good that will tie in the small ends eventually when we have the opportunity. 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."
}