Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino has joined the push to force the government into reaccepting banned betting firms.
He becomes the latest leader to air his concerns about the revocation of licences of some betting companies, among them giant gaming platforms SportPesa and Betin.
Speaking at the Serena Hotel on Tuesday, Owino threatened to hold demos in solidarity with the embattled firms, whose exit, be said, could render a good number of Kenyans jobless.
Owino noted that betting is accepted globally and Kenya should not pretend to be unique, adding that youths who depended on betting for a living have also been rendered stranded.
"This betting was assisting in provision of employment; those who were employed in various betting companies are now jobless, where will they get jobs? The youth that were using this opportunity to pay fees, where will they get the money from?” he is quoted by the Citizen Digital.
The youthful first-term lawmaker termed himself one of the direct beneficiaries of the same during his schooling days, claiming that he paid his university fees through proceeds of betting.
"Personally, betting assisted me in paying my school fee. I graduated in my Actuarial Science degree because of betting, so we cannot be told that betting is bad,” he said.
The government through the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Betting Control and Licencing Board (BCLB) have kept the firms out of operations over claims of unpaid taxes.
SportPesa has since dropped its sponsorship of local sporting teams owing to it being out of operations, which has cased fear among the teams, including Kenya Premier League participate Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards.
AFC has since introduced a paybill for donations from well-wishers.