The Board of Directors of the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has revoked licenses of three Collective Management Organizations (CMOs). The three are the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP), Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK) and the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK).
Revocation of the licenses comes after what KECOBO terms as failure to meet the Board’s licensing conditions.
According to Edward Sigei, Executive Director at KECOBO, the Board had earlier in the year issued the three CMOs with provisional licenses as it allowed them to meet the conditions set out by the Board.
The revocation of licenses follows show-cause letters issued to the CMOs for non-compliance to the licensing conditions. Specific conditions not adhered to are breach of administrative cost limit and diversion of royalties into an undeclared account, whose operations are not monitored by the Board.
The Board also noted in a meeting held on 11th August, that the CMOs distributed Ksh. 41 million (35.9%) instead of Ksh. 79 million (70%) from Ksh. 114 million collected at the end of July 2021. The Board clarified that the distribution excludes money received and expensed in other accounts out of KECOBO monitoring system.
Following the revocation of licenses, collection of royalties has been suspended for a period of 3 months or until further advised.
The Board had further reiterated its commitment to work with the relevant ministries to reform the CMO legal structure. This is aimed at preventing recurrence of the misuse of funds by CMOs.