Kenyan assembly committee dashes hopes of a reduction in gambling tax

Hopes that Kenya’s business-killing tax rate of 35 percent on GGR would be reduced to just 15 percent on operators and a 20 percent tax on players’ winnings were dashed this week when the Assembly’s Labour and Social Welfare committee withdrew amendments to the Betting, Lotteries and Gaming Act proposed earlier this year by National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale.

Our readers will recall that Kenyan operators were shocked by a rise in the tax rate, which went from 7.5 percent to 35 percent at the beginning of this year despite strong lobbying that it would make operations unsustainable and result in reductions in sports sponsorship.

Duale’s amendment was seen as a possible way out of a difficult situation, but the committee appears to have rejected the compromise, with chairman Victor Munyaka observing that Duale’s amendment failed to consider that the tax hike had been the subject of wide government consultation prior to its approval by parliament, and that the courts had rejected claims that the tax hike was unconstitutional.

Whether companies like SportPesa, which recently said it would be resuming sports sponsorships, will now do so is now uncertain.