Artists will not collect their royalties for the next three months following a decision by the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) to revoke the licenses of the three royalty collecting societies on Tuesday, August 24.
In a public notice, the three companies; Kenya Association of Music Production(KAMP), Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK) and Music Copyright Society of Kenya(MCSK) failed to meet the conditions set out by KECOBO Board of Directors.
They were faulted for breach of administrative cost limit and diversion of royalties into an undeclared account whose operations are unmonitored by KECOBO.
The Board further accused the royalty organizations of distributing lesser amounts in terms of royalties where they only released Ksh41 million which amounts to 35.9 per cent instead of Ksh79 million(70%) out of Ksh114 million collected at end of July 2021.
“It should be noted that the distribution excludes money received and expensed in the other accounts out of KECOBO monitoring system,” the notice read in parts.
KECOBO has called for right holders to be patient as they await public consultation and necessary reforms to prevent the recurrence of the misuse of funds by CMOs.
