(Mkenya’s version) by [email protected]
Am not talking about the yesu ni sponsor kinda fad….Jimmy messed up this time around haha!. What am talking about is something more serious, something that will be on, long enough, compared to how long any of jimmy’s songs have remained a hit. Haha! Ive been called a mchokozi tangu utoi. But man lets face it, Jimmy’s antics show how desperate the guy is, desperate enough to shoot talent-creativity-blanks. I dont blame him its tough to remain relevant, especially with kenyans.
Now back to the fad, am talking about gambling, read sportpesa,elitebet, mcheza etc. Tell me of a conversation among youths where you’ll miss the words jackpot or the sentence game moja iliiua multibet. Online sports betting has taken Kenya by storm, at first it seemed like any other leisure activity, but with the rates of suicides, broken families, strained relationships, this is getting real serious. Uhunye should place a state of emergency on the issue, hehe am joking.
Everyone wants to be rich, there’s a desire in each and every one of us, the desire for a good luxurious life, a life where we don’t have to worry about the price tags when we take our women shopping. But most of us tend not to achieve this kind of life, though we are free to dream of it. You see to the jobless youth, coupling these dreams with something that promises in an easy sweat-less way, and wham! They are hooked. You see its hard to convince someone how losing 100 shillings to get millions is going to make them poor; at least before the addiction kicks in then, no one needs convincing .However by the time it gets there it’s going to be too late. A family may have been broken, a bank account may be clean and at extreme cases a life may be lost.
This fad if it goes unchecked will be a disaster. What makes it worse is that there are no institutions set up to deal with gambling addiction, in the country. There should be public education on the negative effects of gambling. This role has been solely left to the media. It shouldn’t be this way; the government should take initiative to help in public awareness. Because it a matter of national importance, the youth are the future of the country, at least that is worth something.
Have I ever gambled? Yes, I have and I’ve learned the hard way how bad it can get. I sweat to get the stake, the wage then lose, then chase, then loan more money, wage a little more to chase, default the loan, burn the relationship with the loaner….it doesn’t get better, trust me. Fellow gamblers out there can conform to what I am saying. The stakeholders at these betting platforms reap from our sweat, it’s because they are smart. The adage goes, the house will always win.
To my fellow youth it is time to get smart, keep working as hard as we’ve always done when we are raising the waging stakes and invest it.
The fad, like I said before….it is the elephant in the country.
