This archive report was first published on 24 August 2021.
On August 24, 2021, the Kenya Copyright Board (Kecobo) took a significant step in addressing concerns over the distribution of royalties collected by artistes. In a notice to the public, Kecobo announced that it had revoked the operating licenses of three collective management organisations (CMOs) - the Kenya Association of Music Producers (Kamp), the Performers Rights Society of Kenya (Prisk), and the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK).
The decision was made after Kecobo discovered that these agencies had violated licensing conditions, including the administrative cost limit and the diversion of royalties into an undeclared account. According to Kecobo Executive Director Edward Sigei, the three CMOs distributed only Sh41 million out of Sh114 million in royalties collected as at the end of July 2021, representing 35.9 percent of the monies, instead of the required 70 percent.
"It should be noted that the distribution excludes money received and expensed in the other accounts out of Kecobo monitoring system," said Sigei.
Earlier in the year, the board had issued the agencies with provisional licenses to allow them time to meet the set conditions. However, after issuing show cause letters to the CMOs for non-compliance, Kecobo decided to revoke their licenses.
"This [the revocation] follows show cause letters issued to the CMOs for non-compliance to the licensing conditions specifically breach of administrative cost limit and diversion of royalties into an undeclared account which operations are unmonitored by Kecobo," Sigei said.
