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{
    "id": 686719,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/686719/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 180,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Wahome",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1700,
        "legal_name": "Alice Muthoni Wahome",
        "slug": "alice-muthoni-wahome"
    },
    "content": "Technology (MOEST) have a big challenge. They should assess its impact on education performance and even on the number of school dropouts to establish whether there is any correlation brought about by the presence of these games. We have raised the same concerns in my constituency. Schools administrators do not seem to know what to do in terms of disciplining the children. They are reluctant because they seem to be part of the cartels that are benefiting from the funds received from gaming. All the businesses allowing school children to participate in gaming should be closed without reference to any law enforcement agency. Immediately a child is seen there, there is obvious violation of the law. How do we capture every shilling we are entitled to in revenue in this business? How does the revenue officer know how much is coming in? There are many ways of avoiding revenue collection because we know it happens. Declaration of how much money has been collected is something that the regulations that will emanate from these provisions should target. As we come up with regulations, we need to target the gaps that exist or always take away revenue. Otherwise, the expected returns will be lost because of dishonesty amongst traders who may not declare sufficiently the revenue they collect. There is also an element that the lottery is supposed to be charitable in a way. Many lotteries that come up sometimes use a deception aspect because they all overdo TV advertisements. People are losing a lot of money. How do we know that they are genuine lotteries so that even as we bet, we know we are not putting money to areas that are not honest or managed and run properly? There are cartels developed to con Kenyans of their money. We have seen lotteries that just come up to quickly receive money from the people. Within a short while, money is gone and nobody will have gained from that lottery. That is something we must be alive to. The regulations we will develop can address that. Policing regulations and licensing of betting needs to be raised to ensure that we get rid of bad practices that accompany the licensing of betting and lotteries. They are there and we know them. May I repeat that we must know which areas to allow these games across the country? Just like we were talking about regulation of bars, we must know how far we can take these games from our villages. These are luxury activities. Do they need to go to the rural areas? How deep should they be allowed to exist in our communities? Because we are talking about collecting and increasing our revenue, I take this opportunity to thank His Excellency the President for signing the Banking (Amendment) Bill. We know that the President chose the side of the people. Therefore, I urge the banks to support the law now that it has been enacted because we are looking for ways of increasing investment and trade, and encourage more entrepreneurship. We can still receive more income and revenue locally from investors, small-scale traders, farmers and the women who nowadays borrow money even for school fees. Imagine the high interest rates when you are borrowing school fees. It is an investment of some form but repayment may become a challenge. We want more revenue. The Office of the Commissioner-General of the KRA should be given support through regulation and licensing of the area of betting, gaming and so on. We should also discourage crooks who come to this country to con Kenyans of their little monies and run away before we earn anything, as a country. With those remarks, I support this Bill."
}