2020-09-09
NAIROBI - In July 2020 an investigation ‘A betting Nation’ got an immediate impact: the Kenyan government back-pedalled on a controversial tax cut less than 48 hours after the president had signed it into law.
The investigation series by journalists Lionel Faull (UK) and Paul Wafula (Kenya) was published in the Daily Nation, Kenya’s leading independent newspaper. The first leg revealed the true numbers of Kenya’s enormous betting addiction, based on leaked figures from the betting regulator. In a follow-up article, the journalists revealed that at the same time the Kenyan government removed a tax for betting companies, a cousin of Kenya’s president accumulated a financial stake in betting giant SportPesa. The final leg of the investigation revealed that SportPesa has been sucking profits out of its lucrative Kenyan business by paying millions of pounds to a software company it owns in the UK – an arrangement that has significantly reduced its tax bills.
Read more at the Daily Nation (Kenya’s leading independent newspaper), at Finance Uncovered and in general about all three legs of this investigation and its impact here. The investigation was supported by Journalismfund’s Money Trail Grants Programme.
Read the full story here.
