Artists
Artists in Kakamega have raised concerns over embezzlement of their funds by Collective Management Organizations (CMOs) in the country.
The artists spoke during a forum for training creatives on how they can secure and benefit from their creativity and crafts through copyrights organized by the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO), themed ‘Faidika na Sanaa Yako’
However, they asked the board to do away with the CMOs and manage the funds on their behalf. CMOs are reportedly exploiting their poor clients, despite their initial investment in the sector, to improve their lives and those of their families.
The available CMOs currently in Kenya are the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK), Music Publishers Association of Kenya (MPAKE), the Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP), The Reproduction Rights Society of Kenya (KOPIKEN) and Performance Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK).
One of the artists, David Barasa, asked the board to regulate the sector to have only one CMO collecting funds on behalf of artists.
Meanwhile, a legal counsel at the Kenya Copyright Board Alex Omanga told the artists that they still need CMOs who have the capacity to monitor their content and collect royalties on their behalf. “You will not say you don’t need a CMO, you need it because you cannot go to every radio station to monitor your content,” he disclosed.
Omanga noted that CMOs in Kenya have reciprocal agreements with CMOs of other countries such that if an artists’ work has been used in a foreign country, the CMO in that country will collect royalty and submit to the CMO of Kenya which will in turn distribute to the local artist who composed the work.
He said that the challenges faced by the artists within CMOs is that artists are reluctant to take the necessary steps to ensure those organizations are performing their duties as required. “As a member of a CMO, you have the right to call a special general meeting and remove the entire board if they are not performing well,” he added.
CMOs distribute royalties to artists based on general distribution, where funds are distributed equally, and scientific distribution, which considers the number of times the song was played and the number of stations.
In the Scientific distribution criteria, an artist whose artistic work or song was used multiple times will get more funds than the one whose work was used less. “You find that your song has been trending and you have only received Sh. 2 000 but another person has been paid Sh. 100 000,” he noted.
Omanga regretted that the CMOs have not been paying royalties to artists as required in the law with majority of them paying only 50 per cent of the monies they collect.
“The law stipulates that when you collect about Sh. 100 as a CMO, you are required to take Sh. 70 to the artists and use 30% per cent to cover administration costs. The CMOs have not been adhering to that, the best they have been doing is 50%. It is terrible that one of the CMOs was doing 19%,” he disclosed.
KECOBO conducted a forensic audit of CMOs from 2017-2019, revealing that they had allegedly embezzled artists’ funds.
“Because we are a regulator and we received those reports, we submitted the names of the board members and senior management to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to proceed with investigations in the said CMOs,” he added.
He noted that the Board has urged the CMOs to do joint collections to reduce the cost of operations to ensure enough funds get to the artists.
Omanga also assured the artists that KECOBO will continue to monitor to ensure the CMOs distribute funds according to the law.