Kenya: High court suspends deregistration of CMOs

The case was filed on 14 July by KECOBO seeking orders to freeze bank accounts in which jointly collected royalties were being held and to stop the CMOs from operating. It also wanted permission to collect and distribute royalties to copyright holders on its own or through an agent. On 27 July, the court declined to grant these demands until 3 November when the matter is scheduled for a hearing. 

The ruling was made on 30 August by Justice Weldon Korir who ordered that the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK), the Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK) and the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP) continue to collect royalties. The understanding is that the CMOs will submit a report to KECOBO accounting for royalties collected until the hearing date.

Korir noted that the owners of copyright works would suffer during the three months envisaged by the regulator before issuing of a new licence to another CMO.

On 24 August, KECOBO’s board of directors issued a public notice deregistering the CMOs and subsequently halting the collection of royalties for three months. The copyright board said it would use this time to reform the legal structures for collection societies in order to prevent the misuse of funds, as gathered from a forensic audit report it commissioned in 2020.

“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% 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,” KECOBO chairman Mutuma Mathiu said.