Kenya Copyright Board deregisters KAMP, PRISK and MCSK

Kenya Copyright Board's Executive Director Edward Sigei. [File, Standard]

Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has deregistered the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP), Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK) and the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) for failure to meet its licensing conditions.

According to KECOBO, the Board of Directors had issued the three Collective Management Organisations with show-cause letters for non-compliance; specifically "breach of administrative cost limit and diversion of royalties into an undeclared account which operations are unmonitored."

The three CMOs were however issued with provisional licenses as the Board allowed them time to meet the set conditions.

"The Board, at its meeting on August 11, 2021, further took note of the recent distribution of royalties where the CMOs distributed Sh41 million (35.9 per cent instead of Sh79 million (70 per cent) from Sh114 million collected at the end of July 2021 in defiance to the KECOBO licence conditions. It should be noted that the distribution excludes money received and expensed in the other accounts out of the KECOBO monitoring system,” read a statement from KECOBO Executive Director, Edward Sigei.

“The Board after being dissatisfied with the CMO explanation in response to the show cause letter invoked the provisions of section 46(9) to 46(12) of the Copyright Act to deregister KAMP PRISK and MCSK.”

The collection of royalties has been suspended for a period of three months or until further notice, following the revocation of licenses.

“The Board will, in conjunction with relevant ministries, shortly commence the process of seeking views on reforming the CMO legal structure to prevent recurrence of the misuse of funds by CMOs,” said Sigei.