KENYA: After Elani Royalties Row Government Now Asks MCSK, PRSK and KAMP Ordered to Table Documents

The Parliamentary ICT and Energy Committee has directed Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK), Performance Rights Society of Kenya (PRSK) and Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) to present their two year records by Tuesday next week before the committee.

“The committee directs you to present reports, audited accounts, breakdown of income in terms of how much has been received and paid to artists for the past two years and a full list of members  by close of business Tuesday next week,” said the Committee Chairman Jamleck Kamau.

The committee today has called for the creation of one national body that will oversee collection and management of royalties in the music industry instead of the three current Collection Management Organizations (CMOs).

Kamau informed that inadequate laws, vested interest and poor leadership are a big problem in the music industry that expose musicians to fraudsters who take advantage of the loopholes in the law to benefit themselves at the expense of the musicians.

Kenya Youth Parliamentarians Association (KYPA) Chairman Johnson Sakaja while attending the meeting said that the 60 percent Kenyan content airplay amendment should be implemented in order to generate more income for the musicians.

He accused media houses of not paying required royalties adding that the music industry could solve a lot of unemployment issues if it is streamlined.

Sakaja said that Safaricom makes about Ksh. 600 million monthly from Skiza tunes  yet the musician is allocated only 15 percent of this with very little getting to the musician while the mobile operator gets 85 percent.

“There should be regulations to ensure that the musician takes 70 percent as they are the sole owners of the songs while the operators should take only 30 percent,” said Sakaja.

He added that KYPA will start workshops with artists countrywide to train them to understand the law so that they are not robbed of their rightful pay.

Sakaja reiterated that the role played by CMOs should be played by a government body that can be audited publicly as the current CMOs are private institutions and cannot be audited by the office of the auditor general.

The musicians who presented a petition to the committee accused the CMOs of benefitting from their work without considering them.

Led by their chairperson Ben Githae, the musicians accused the CMOs of oppressing them and consuming money that is rightly theirs.