Kabogo begs Uhuru to ban sports betting in Kenya
Former Kiambu governor William Kabogo has appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to emulate his Ugandan counterpart and ban sports betting in Kenya.
Kabogo in his plea said betting takes money from the poor to benefit the rich.
He tweeted; “I hope president UK does the same. A few rich men are collecting money from the poor returning 20% to the poor and retaining 80% of which they pay a small %age to GK as taxes. Who’s screwing who?”
“I’ve been saying we stop this nonsense for a year now. Taking money from the poor to give it to the rich is immoral,” he added.
President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday ordered that no new sports betting company be licensed to operate in Uganda and licences for the existing companies should not be renewed.
Ugandan minister David Bahati said the president’s directive was because betting diverts the attention of youth from work.
The discussion on betting and gambling by Kenyan youths has been going on for a while now. In 2018, Interior secretary Fred Matiang’i banned gambling machines across the country.
County governments too have engaged in that discussion, with Tharaka Nithi governor Muthomi Njuki in August announcing plans to ban betting citing laziness among youths.