KECOBO claims artists' royalty collection hit Ksh.22M in 10 days, but Ezekiel Mutua says it's just Ksh.5K

The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has announced a surprising jump in royalty collection for Kenyan musicians, from a supposed previous Ksh.600,000 to a record high Ksh.2.2 million.

KECOBO, in a statement released on Thursday, said the total collection as at June 18, 2024, stood at Ksh.22 million.

This, it noted, came just 10 days after the sole licence to collect royalties was issued to the Performing and Audio-Visual Rights Society of Kenya (PAVRISK).

The move effectively relieved the other two previously existing Collective Management Organizations (CMOs) – the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) and the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) - of the mandate.

“The Board notes that following the issuance of a Collective Management Organization license to Performing and Audio-Visual Rights Society of Kenya (PAVRISK), collection of royalties from music users has increased from a daily collection of Ksh.600,000 to Ksh.2.2 million daily,” stated KECOBO.

“As at June 18, Ksh.22 million had been collected. This was 10 days after the issuance of the licence. This was an improvement from the collections that was being done previously by the three CMOs jointly.”

The Joshua Kutuny-led board went ahead to project the daily royalty collection to grow to Ksh.3 million, further noting that it is in the process to establish recording studios in all 47 counties.

It also stated that it is in talks with relevant government ministries to come up with a programme that will enable Kenyan artists to obtain loans at relatively lower rates.

“The daily collection is expected to rise to Ksh.3million daily with introduction of an enhanced system and support from music users. The Board encourages transparency in the collection and distribution of royalties by the CMO to help cut on costs and increase royalty distribution to artists to at least 70 percent of the collection,” noted KECOBO.

“The Board is in the process of engaging the Ministry of Cooperatives and Micro/ Small and Medium Enterprises Development to establish artists and creatives' savings cooperative society (SACCO) that will give artists an opportunity to borrow at a lower rate.”

MCSK boss Ezekiel Mutua has since, however, come out to contest KECOBO’s daily collection figures, further accusing the board of disregarding court orders in a case it supposedly filed after the sole collection licence was issued to PAVRISK.

According to Mr. Mutua, it is not even remotely accurate to claim that PAVRISK could have collected anything more than a meager Ksh.5,000 within three weeks.

“When the country is burning because of the arrogance and incompetence of public officials, you are here disobeying court orders and lying to the public to please your corrupt paymasters. Shame on you,” he wrote on X.

“PAVRISK has collected less than 5k in three weeks. You claiming it's over 20M. What does it take for your useless state corporations to know that it's not business as usual in Kenya?”