Kenya’s embattled betting industry has been served further bad news, as President Uhuru Kenyatta this weekend publicly stated that he would instruct national legislators to shutdown Kenya’s gambling sector outright.
Betting incumbents will be dissecting Kenyatta’s address at this Saturday’s ‘Christ is the Answer Ministries’ (CITAM) event hosted in Nairobi, judging whether Kenya’s President was simply playing to the crowd.
Despite Kenyatta’s threats to gambling incumbents, Kenya’s President underlines that ‘constitutional changes’ are required for the TNA government to sanction an entire blanket ban on gambling services.
“We have this thing called gambling and it’s so bad, I alone can’t finish it – go change the constitution,” said Kenyatta, addressing CITAM and the national media.
“So long as they are operating within Kenya, and are guided by the laws of the land, they should give Caesar what belongs to Caesar. You [MPs] should help me do it, I cannot rein in on them alone”.
This summer the TNA government instructed Kenya’s Betting Control & Licensing Board (BCLB) to suspend all bookmaker license renewals, as the nation’s Tax Authority seeks to recuperate KES 62 billion in disputed industry taxes.
However, the government’s handling of the controversial tax dispute has drawn criticism for multiple stakeholders, as Kenya’s wider business community has been demanded to sanction business restrictions on bookmakers, aiding the BCLB’s stringent tactics against industry incumbents.
Last July, BCLB Director Liti Wambua ordered Kenya’s leading telecom operators to execute an immediate closure of payment processing and shortcode provisions offered to bookmakers.
Furthermore, Wambua demanded that Kenyan banks freeze all accounts related to Kenyan betting enterprises, fearing capital flight by executives.
Led by market-leading incumbent SportPesa, Kenyan betting operators have launched a series of Nairobi High Court challenges against the government, underlining that its departments’ have politicised all levels Kenyan business in pursuing its betting Tax dispute.
Furthermore, Kenyan betting operators maintain that the government has illegally pursued its betting restrictions, as a number of tax disputes had been reviewed by Nairobi Courts who had dismissed former tax charges on player winnings.
