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{
    "id": 677249,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/677249/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 203,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Midiwo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 184,
        "legal_name": "Washington Jakoyo Midiwo",
        "slug": "jakoyo-midiwo"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, I rise on an important issue regarding the subject of the Bill we are about to discuss. This is a Bill of 2015 and it was meant to address certain issues. Since 2015, this country has gone and is still going through issues of gambling and betting. I have looked at this Bill and it does not adequately address the issues the public tells us. Under Article 95, this House needs to approach this issue differently. We asked the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade about this issue. I raised the issue about the Report and public hearing and we even discussed it in the House Business Committee (HBC). Every day, we read in the Press about Kenyans who have gambled their lives away. The latest one is about students who are gambling their school fees away. This is a matter which this House must address differently. It is a serious national issue. Gambling has become a way of life. Kenya is becoming a nation that gambles. This House has a responsibility to look at and scream about this gambling under Article 95 of our Constitution. I request the Chair to guide the House, so that issues of money laundering are stopped. The amount of money that is exchanging hands in gambling, particularly online gambling, must be so big at a time when this country needs taxes and money. You cannot have unregulated gambling. This Bill does not address the current form of gambling and betting. Yesterday, the Daily Nation, a leading newspaper carried a story on the second last page about sports betting. The story was about money collected in Kenya going to sponsor Hull City Football Club at the tune of Kshs6 billion. I have been around the world and usually, the State uses gambling to raise money. We do not know who these people are. There is even insinuation that one of the big ones, which Kenyans are waking up to or not even sleeping because of gambling, is owned by some Bulgarians. This is mafia . We are in a state where we can only raise half our Budget through the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and we borrow the rest. We are going to borrow painfully, but somebody is collecting and repatriating. This is not a small thing. I am told some of them are making a whooping profit of up to Kshs3 billion to Kshs4 billion a month. This is really a crisis in our country. The other week I read about school girls who left home with school fees and went and gambled the money away. They were embarrassed to go home and they got married to some slum guy. The guy was really fortunate. I cannot say he was lucky, but in Hon. Duale’s culture, he would be very happy to get two for nothing."
}