Kenya’s sports betting tax controversy has cost a local legislator the leadership of a prominent government committee.

Earlier this week, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the legislature’s new Finance Bill 2020, which included a provision striking the controversial 20% excise tax on local sportsbook operators’ betting turnover. But just days later, Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani publicly vowed to reintroduce the betting tax before the year was done.  

Yatani appeared to suggest that President Kenyatta was unaware that the betting tax had been eliminated from the Bill when he affixed his signature, claiming that “the removal of this tax happened during the Committee stage of the Bill.” On Friday, local media reported that National Assembly Finance Committee chair Joseph Limo (pictured) had lost his chairmanship as result of the controversy.

Interior Secretary Fred Matiang’i reiterated the government’s position Friday, saying the government was “not going back on the decisions we took on betting and gambling.” Matiang’i said President Kenyatta “is firm on this matter and we have his word to streamline this sector.”