PHOTO CAPTION: Social media influencer Brian Mutinda, alongside Wakadinali, a Kenyan music group based in Nairobi's Eastlands Kenyan underground hip-hop group Wakadinali has filed a lawsuit against popular social media influencer Brian Mutinda for copyright infringement.
This is after Mr. Mutinda used one of their biggest hits, “Geri Inengi”, for an online advertisement gig commissioned by the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) under online marketing agency “Squad Digital” - a subsidiary of WPP-Scangroup.
In a viral post published on the group’s Twitter page on Monday, August 22, they noted that their efforts to privately sort out the matter hit a dead end, hence their decision to seek justice in court. “It is with great sadness that we bring this to the public, our music was been infringed upon by some entities and we tried to resolve it privately but they refused to settle with us,” the thread starts.
In a demand letter dated 29th June 2022, Wakadinali's lawyer James T Makori Advocate instructed that the videos be immediately pulled down from all social media pages and a public apology issued on the same. In their response, Squad Digital denied any liability by KCB towards Wakadinali as stated in the letter for alleged intellectual copyright infringement, arguing that their music is available on the Instagram music library. "Licensed audio is copyrighted audio available on the Instagram library and includes things like music, movies, TV shows and sound effects. All licensed audio," they retorted. "You will find it very hard to justify any liability or quantum, and if necessary, we will defend our position robustly in court." They, however, invited all involved parties for an “explanatory meeting” on 14 July 2022, “with the aim of all parties coming to a common position”. In a letter dated 12th July 2022, they complied to attend the meeting. "In the spirit of amicably settling this matter, my clients and myself shall be available for the meeting requested by yourselves at the appointed date and time," it notes in part. But as per Wakadinali’s side of the story, the meeting was barely fruitful.
They claim that the Squad Digital legal team requested more time to engage their senior management but later went mute. “We humbly attended the meeting requested by them at their offices and they insisted on settling the matter out of court. They requested for time to engage their senior management, which we allowed them, but they went quiet after that.” “We requested our lawyers to write to them that time was moving and we are yet to hear from them. All we want is justice and our copyrights as artists respected by all and sundry as we invest a lot to create our music and our music videos,” they wrote.
On 1st August 2022, Wakadinali, through James T Makori Advocate, once again wrote to Squad Digital, notifying them that they would be proceeding to file a case against the company in court. “My client’s hopes were that this matter would be amicably resolved, but due to failure on your part by being unresponsive, our client has reached a position where decisions have to be made,” the letter reads in part. “We have hereby been instructed to proceed and file a case against your company in a court of law without any further reference to you”. Last month, legendary rapper Hubert Mbuku Nakitare popularly known as "Nonini" threatened to take legal action against Brian Mutinda for infringement of copyright.
This is after Mr Mutinda used one of the rapper's biggest hits, “We Kamu”, in a video advertising a new flat screen TV from Syinix.
Nonini later filed a suit at Milimani Law Courts on Thursday, August 18, under case number E4007 of 2022.