More than 400 people lose jobs as Sportpesa closes shop

A couple of people have lost their jobs after Sportpesa officially closed its operations in the country. The news was broken by Sportpesa CEO Ronald Karauri on Wednesday rendering around 400 employees jobless. This comes after a tussle dating a few months between the betting firm and the government on alleged taxes owed by the firm to the government.

Also read: KRA proposes new avenues of collecting taxes

While closing its operations the company stated that it will resume operations once the government puts in place”adequate taxation and non-hostile regulatory environment”.

Kenyans concerned

The closure has left many Kenyans devastated with #Ilostmyjob and #Savemyjob trends running on twitter for the better part of Wednesday and today. The hashtag highlights the plight of sacked employees, some of them saying they have families to cater for and others having to move to cheaper housing to manage the little they are remaining with.

This comes a few days after another betting firm, Betin, closed its business in the country letting its staff go bringing a total number of affected individuals to around 2500.

Also read: Ignore insurance at your peril

“This has been occasioned by the fact that we have not been operational since July 2019 a fact we are all aware of. Management has had several extensive meeting with relevant government entities regarding the company’s license renewal without much success,” a memo by Betin dated September 27 read.

With the tough economic times and high unemployment rates, the hope of the affected individuals getting jobs elsewhere seems dim.

Reactions

Below are some tweets from the affected employees and concerned Kenyans:

#ilostmyjob #mystory #shareyourstory pic.twitter.com/niTNynPONU

— Juliah Awuor (@juliahawuor1) October 2, 2019

So today SportPesa management had to tell its staff what has been the inevitable for the last 3 months – the centre can’t holder any longer. Massive grief seeing this entire team rendered jobless by ridiculous policies of our beloved government. #SaveMyJob pic.twitter.com/FizLR3HkGL

— Tom Bwana (@TomBwana) October 2, 2019

#ILostMyJob
With the little i had saved, started a ka business.
Kanjo, rent, high electricity bills, among others.
Biashara ikaanguka… But that’s non of your business

— Papa the Myth (@PapaTheMyth) October 3, 2019

#ILostMyJob Closing down on these betting companies and leaving others to operate, what does that mean? So will the vice you keep claiming Sportpesa and Betin cause cease? I don’t bet I have never bet but I feel for the 400+ families and soon over 300 from Betin. God have mercy

— Gov. Kennedy Barasa (@governorbarasa) October 3, 2019