Why All Eyes Are On Gambling Authority CEO Peter Karimi As Kenya’s Betting Firms Race To Beat The June Licence Renewal Deadline
He is a former betting company founder whose associated payment firm was shut by the Communications Authority for non-compliance, and who oversaw a platform that owed KRA Kshs.43.2 million during the same 2019 tax crackdown that swept the industry. He was appointed to regulate that same industry under a law whose five-year cooling-off provision may well bar that very appointment, and a High Court petition is now testing exactly that question. As ninety-nine licensed betting operators across Kenya race to meet a June 30 licence renewal deadline under an entirely new regulatory framework, Peter Maina Karimi, the inaugural Director General of the Gambling Regulatory Authority, is the single most consequential figure in Kenyan gambling since Fred Matiang’i deported seventeen foreign directors in 2019. The mainstream media, funded by betting company advertising, will not write this story about him.