National

KECOBO concerned after artists fail to get over Sh100 million in royalties

Kenya Copyright Board Chairperson Executive Director Julius Sigei.

By Saleem Abdi | Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Marakwet daughter, the famous artist behind Kalenjin hit ‘Mali Safi Chito’, was paid Sh108,123 but the ideal royalties should have totaled Sh640,920.

Three Collective Management Organisations (CMOs) in the music industry failed to pay artists more than Sh100 million in royalties last year, paying them up to a sixth of their desired royalties during the year.

Among top artists who received a raw deal in the royalties received from the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK), Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) and Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK), include Otile Brown, Marakwet Daughter (Millicent Jepkorir), Simon Macharia (Musaimo), gospel artist Solomon Mkubwa and the late Kikuyu artist John De Matthew.

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This has been revealed by the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) in a statement on the performance of licensed CMOs in payment of royalties through the e-Citizen in 2023.

KECOBO said after meeting heads of MCSK, KAMP and PRISK, it learnt that despite the three CMOs collecting Sh249.7 million in revenues in 2023, they only paid royalties totaling Sh26 million.

“From the Information presented by the three CMOs themselves, KECOBO established that the sum of Sh249,687,212 was collected jointly from January to December 2023,” KECOBO stated.

KECOBO, however, identified that there were disparities in reporting of reported joint collections among the three CMOs, with KAMP and PRISK declaring a collection of Sh249 million, and MCSK declaring Sh139 million.

“The KECOBO Board of Directors noted that royalties were paid only from quarter one of 2023 collections. All the Societies did not set aside royalties from collections in quarters two, three and four despite the improved business environment,” the Board stated.

The law requires that CMOs should distribute 70 per cent of collections from artists’ works, which would have translated to Sh173 million last year.

“This is clearly not the case here.”

“A simple analysis of the amounts that would accrue to MCSK members were this revenue paid as the Copyright Regulations reveal that each artist could earn at least six times the amount paid during the year in royalties,” KECOBO added.

For instance, Otile Brown was paid Sh120,000 but KECOBO says the artist should have been paid Sh720,000.

Marakwet daughter, the famous artist behind Kalenjin hit ‘Mali Safi Chito’, was paid Sh108,123 but the ideal royalties should have totaled Sh640,920, KECOBO observed.

Gospel artist Reuben Kigame was not paid royalties totaling Sh612,050, and was only paid Sh122,410, while Solomon Mkubwa was paid a mere Sh74,138 out of the ideal Sh444,000.

The KECOBO statement showed that artist Rehema Lugose would have made the highest amount of Sh4.54 million during the year, but was only paid royalties totaling Sh797,092.

“From our analysis, we note that artists from some regions like the Coast, Nyanza and Central were underrepresented or left out completely. We shall demand explanations in this regard,” KECOBO stated.