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{
    "id": 964412,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/964412/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 210,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David ole Sankok",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13166,
        "legal_name": "David Ole Sankok",
        "slug": "david-ole-sankok"
    },
    "content": "gambling, there will be online gambling where the Government may never even benefit. Nonetheless, there will still be gambling. I do not support entirely because it will go on whether I support or not. There was a day I was suggesting that we should legalise certain professions like prostitution so that the Government can collect some revenue from it. That is because it will go on whether it is legalised or not. We know what is happening in Kenya at night. It is all over. That is why we have hotels and lodgings and the Government is not collecting any revenue from it. If it is legalised, revenue will be collected. We may be having 500,000 sex workers in the country. If you collect even Kshs10 per day from each of them, we will have a lot of revenue – Kshs5 million per day. It translates to billions in a year. With such economic times, it could be another source of revenue for our country to try and balance our Budget instead of cutting some budgets from the county governments and other agencies. Therefore, I support this Bill. I was specifically attracted by the formation of the board. We have, as a House, formed so many boards. We have so many boards. We have passed the formation of so many boards. This is increasing the wage bill that we are trying to control in this country. If it was possible, it would have been just a department in a ministry responsible. It is because we have all manner of boards. We can still merge a few of those boards so that we can save on how much we use on the wage bill and operational costs. It is as if the Government is the one spearheading this Gaming Bill. According to Mwongozo, the reason we have boards of state corporations or authorities is to try and bring the knowhow and professionalism of the private sector so that it can meet with the Government. If you have already worked in the Government, you already had an opportunity to implement whichever laws that you think are better for Kenyans. For the private sector to implement certain laws, they come in terms of boards of state corporations. I can see this board is almost entirely made up of people working in the Government and have had an opportunity. So, I will bring some amendments so that we have more input from the private sector and independent board members - especially youths - since it affects them mostly. We will even include people from our learning institutions. We can decide that the Chairman of the Students Organisation of Nairobi University (SONU) will be a board member. You know I was once a president of SONU at one time. Even Babu Owino was a SONU president at one time, for four years. For me, I was there for only seven months and I was suspended. We can decide a structured channel in which we bring in our students to sit in these boards, even students from high schools. That is so that they do not finish their school fees in gambling. I have also seen that it does not have the representation of persons with disability. When we are talking of inclusion, do not think that it is only those that are without disability who gamble. I also gambled once and I lost terribly. I lost a lot of money. So, I would also want the input of persons with disability so that they can also protect their fellows. They can advise them when they meet in meetings. The last part is that I really do support so that we can control this gaming and gambling institution. It is because they are making 99.999 per cent profit. At least, they will be giving the authorities books of accounts so that we can, at least, minimise because the normal profit is 30 per cent and below. However, what they make is exorbitant. It is like a pyramid scheme that is a fraudulent act depriving Kenyans of their hard earned cash. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}