KECOBO deregisters KAMP, PRISK, MCSK over royalty payouts

The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has decided to deregister the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP), Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK) and the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) due to low royalty payouts. 

In a statement to newsrooms on Tuesday, the board cited the Collective Management Organisations' (CMOs') failure to meet conditions set out in their provisional licenses in April this year and that were valid until May 30 as the reason for its decision. 

Holding an Annual General Meeting; allocating 70% of revenue for royalty payment; engaging with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) with a view to reaching a payment plan on tax arrears; demonstrating evidence of marketing and promotion of the use of ICT collection system; uploading of repertoire to the system under KECOBO supervision and implementing the CMO policy in total were the conditions with which they were to comply. 

KECOBO Executive Director Edward Sigei said, “By the time the Board was issuing these conditions, it noted that several conditions for the 2020 license period had not been achieved. The Board set the conditions on the understanding that rights holders would be relying on the royalties collected by CMOs during the pandemic period.” 

“The decision to deregister the CMOs 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 whose operations are not monitored by KECOBO. Several submissions were also received from rightsholder organisation in response to a public notice placed by KECOBO both in print and various social media platforms,” he added. 

According to the board, at the end of July 2021 the three CMOs collected Ksh.114 million in royalties but only distributed 35.9% (Ksh.41 million) instead of the agreed 70% (Ksh.79 million).

The statement read, “From reports of distribution from two entities received so far, PRISK allocated a further Kshs. 4 million while KAMP made an allocation of Kshs. 1.2 million from their allocation of Kshs.10 million and Kshs. 8 million respectively to cater for administrative costs.” 

Collection of royalties was also suspended by the board for three months so that it can work on reforming the CMO legal structure to prevent any future misuse of funds.

KECOBO Board Chair Mutuma Mathieu pointed to out, “The main issues flagged by the Board of Directors include the opening of a different account other than the KPM account authorised by KECOBO, having spent more than 65 percent of the finances on administration cost contrary to directives and not undertaking their role of engaging the public and raising awareness about the KPM system.”