Regulate gambling, do not cripple it
What you need to know:
- We have done all we can. The matter is now out of our hands and it’s a pity that we can do no more.
- Perhaps the government shall now make more money from taxes and it will be very good for us.
- In the meantime, we should just shut up and remember the good old days.
We have done all we can. The matter is now out of our hands and it’s a pity that we can do no more.
Perhaps the government shall now make more money from taxes and it will be very good for us. In the meantime, we should just shut up and remember the good old days.
Were there any good old days for Kenyan sports? There have been people who are of a set mind and can tell you openly that Kenyan football was very high at a certain time - they never specify the time - and they easily roll out great names for you with annoying ease.
When you ask them what titles Kenyans won in those so called “glory days” they will tell you about the Cecafa championship. There is always nothing more except the crowning glory of reaching the finals of the All Africa Games in 1987 when the Egyptians edged us at home.
Club wise, K’Ogalo did much better than the national team and AFC Leopards too. They went full throttle to continental glory.
The clubs did well simply because they were employed people working in parastatals and even playing football was a side hustle and the issue of allowances never seemed to bother them much.
During the 1990’s the parastatals were being sold off eerily and people were losing their jobs at an appalling rate.
The players had to turn professional and the damage that was done to footballers of that generation has never been quantified and it shall never be done at all.
Perhaps the pale image of a former football star picking used plastic water bottles in a dumpsite to go and sell can give a better picture to the well fed fools who wasted their lives.
The best thing that ever happened to Kenyan football was the SuperSport sponsorship of the Kenya Premier League.
It made playing football in this country worthwhile. Well, we lost it and now we are losing the sponsorship of the betting companies that kept our sports alive by sponsoring teams and, the KPL and even the local football body.
A left hand appended its power signature to the abhorrent bill that was debated with religious convictions forming the centre stage of the saga.
Reading through the Parliamentary hansard just showed us what little brains we elect or nominate in this country. Instead of regulating the gambling industry, they chose to maim it and their silly chirps matter more than any other voice in this country.
It is over and soon we will have players going without pay for months and clubs failing to honour matches.
I am still haunted by the shrill voice of a nominate female PM shouting: “Gambling is a sin in my religion and in other religions; this tax shall eradicate this vice once and for all”.
She was nominated to make laws but nobody told her it was not about making religious laws.
