Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 680906,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/680906/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 236,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gichigi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1909,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Kamunye Gichigi",
        "slug": "samuel-kamunye-gichigi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker for giving me this opportunity. It is important for Members of this House to understand where this Motion came from. The Leader of the Majority Party brought an amendment to the Lotteries and Gaming Act to target the tax component. We need to introduce tax on those gaming firms. I sit in the Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare that oversees sport issues, and early last week, we received concerns on this issue. I had even asked the legal counsel to research on the law on lotteries in other jurisdictions to see how we can improve it. We should look at this legal framework and make serious changes and additions so that we can deal with this issue. Hon. Speaker, I have seen my name in this list and I do not know how it got here. I am extremely uncomfortable when I hear imputations on certain motives made by certain Members. Most of us came to this House to try and make a difference and improve the Kenyan citizenry. Some of us intend to do a task whenever we are given. There is no doubt that we need a law that bans lotteries and betting by minors who are not of a majority age. That must be done. The licensing framework for betting firms is weak. We should be very careful when it comes to licensing. We must strengthen it to make sure that a person or a firm is properly vetted before it is given a licence to carry out those activities. Some of us have previously received information that some of the betting firms are run or associated with senior officials in the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Arts. The Sports Act created the national lottery and the intention was to ensure that profits made out of that activity go towards sponsoring sport activities in this country, in the spirit of the Kenya Charity Sweepstake. Almost 100 per cent earnings of the Kenya Charity Sweepstake were supposed to go to charitable and sporting activities. As we speak, we must come up with a law that limits profits that go to the pocket of any person. Betting is not an investment. That is simply playing around with the minds of Kenyans. Have the owners put in any money there? If you are collecting Kshs1 billion per month, and only giving back 10 million to the winners, what sort of investment is that? That is robbery. You are robbing members of public. We must ensure that there is proper accountability of that money and serious transparency on how people win. Who is overseeing how the winner is determined? We know those things are arranged. If one million people are betting, how is it that only 10 people 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."
}