Kenyan artists rejected the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) decision that awarded three content management organizations to collect royalties on their behalf.
In a statement, the musicians said, “We musicians would like to strongly reject the actions of one Mr Edward Sigei the CEO of KECOBO’s decision to award MCSK, KAMP & PRISK a joint license to collect royalties from users on our behalf. We have sought answers from Sports Arts and Culture Cabinet Secretary Rashid Mohammed Echesa on how the KECOBO CEO managed to unconstitutionally issue the license letter on a Sunday yet we had sought to solve the problems in royalty collection and we were in the process of awaiting the CS guidance.”
In addition they said, “The CS informed us that KECOBO CEO went against his directive not to issue any communication on licenses or the licenses before outstanding conditions that denied MCSK a license in 2017 were resolved and all stakeholders are on one page with a lasting solution to the problems that have existed in the whole business of royalty collection.”
The artistes added that the move was unconstitutional and KECOBO lacks quorum to make such a decision as their term ended on October 31, 2018.
“Its good to take note that, Mcsk was deregistered in 2017 because they collected money and did not pay artists. In 2017 and 2018 they continued to collect illegally and not paying artists, further the court found them guilty and ordered kecobo to take action. Instead if kecobo taking action, they have gone ahead to license the same organization which has not paid any artist in years. Immediately after the board deferred the decision to issue a license, the board term ended on 31st October 2018. Kecobo does not have a new board which would have considered the issuing of a license. It would appear that Mr. Sigei is acting on his own since kecobo has no board members. This is against the law”