Suddenly, there is unbridled desire to stop betting firms from ‘minting’ millions from supposedly poor Kenyans. In fact, there is nothing wrong with proper legislation to protect the interest of Kenyans, anyway.
However, when the urge to check this gaming companies border on blackmail, it loses the moral justification.
SportPesa’s runaway success was bound to raise eyebrows anyway. It was also bound to wake this land of copycats into wanting a share of the pie.
Reports that several politicians are now lining up in betting firm offices or inundating the CEOs with calls to ‘sponsor this and that activity’, ‘or else...’ is very disturbing. Granted, every business has to be regulated, especially betting which could be used to clean up dirty money.
Therefore, SportPesa or any gaming firm must play by the rules, but they must not be blackmailed. If there should be a review of legislation, it should be done devoid of selfish desire by MPs to line their pockets.
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Cord leader Raila Odinga makes a lot sense when he says gambling in Kenya is thriving on hustler philosophy, which promotes primitive accumulation of wealth at the expense of other values. There is need to check what is going on in these betting companies, but just targeting one company because of its success is trying to kill the goose that laid the gold eggs.
One thing you cannot accuse SportPesa of is their commitment to funding local sporting activities. We may debate on the amount they put in local sports, but not their desire to return something to the youth engaged in sports.
Like Supersport, the betting firm run by CEO Ronald Karauri believes in the potential of local sports. And that is why they did not need endless piles of proposal to see the brighter side of local sports.
Today, Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards, which were on their death-bed and hostage to politicians who made empty promises on end, have had a kiss of life from SportPesa.
The Kenyan Premier League, Football Kenya Federation, Extreme Super 8 League, Rugby Union and Boxing have all benefited from financial windfall from the company.
I once asked FKF president Nick Mwendwa, why he sold several football properties to SportPesa for a song, he shot back asking: “Bring me another company that believes in the FKF vision and willing to pump in more than what we have been given.” I understood his frustration.
In the same way, no local media house wanted to touch Kenyan football until Supersport came into the scene, most companies in Kenya allocate millions of shillings to Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) activities yet they don’t want to touch local sports. Often the excuse is, sports in Kenya lacks accountability.
The irony, however, is even those same firms that proclaim the need for accountability have themselves been shadowy as huge chunks of sponsorship money end up in the pockets of their communication and marketing managers.
Lest you forget, until SportPesa hit the local scene, there had been efforts dating back to President Mwai Kibaki’s administration to set up a national lottery, which for reasons known to Sports Ministry never took off.
All we keep hearing in presidential speeches during national holidays is the oft repeated line of “there is need to set up a national lottery to fund sports activities.”
