The Government has impounded 46 gambling machines from various markets and towns Kirinyaga County and the operation is still on, County Commissioner Mohamed Birik has said. The administrator has also outlawed the game in the area terming it as a security concern and a haven for breeding criminals.

Birik said security agents in the area have identified a foreigner engaged in the manufacturing of the machines within Ngurubani town. “We have been wondering why no matter how frequent our security agents raids bars with these machines and impound them , the more they get being installed without any knowledge the foreigner involved in their mass production is in our midst,”Birik said. He cited Kagumo, Kutus,Kagio, Sagana and Ngurubani towns as the areas where this money and time wasting game has taken root and warned bar owners who allow the gaming in their premises of risking losing their licenses.

Birik said now that the government has obtained a court order outlawing the game, anyone found engaging in it will be arrested and prosecuted while the machine owner will also face the same wrath. He said Youths and even adults who get addicted to the game end up being desperate after gambling all their cash with such desperation leading them to petty crime for survival. Birik was speaking at Baricho market during a Nyumba Kumi Initiative meeting convened by its Chairman Joseph Kaguthi.